126 RIFLE AND ROMANCE 



under tamarinds so shady, 



where the hunters Arab Waler 



switch their tails, by syces tended. 



Thither, too, the scouts repairing, 

 Shortly see hog-hunters issue 

 (champing curb-chain, glancing spear-tip), 

 cross the fields o'er, pass the ford by, 

 some to right and some to left hand 

 (and a couple with the beaters). 



Roosting, like some mangy vulture, 

 in the branches of a babul 

 thorny tree that wild acacia ! 

 sits a figure stands a figure 

 ape-like gibbers mid the branches, 

 branches of the thorny babul; 

 pointing, beckoning beckoning, pointing, 

 joins dusk hands before the sahib^ 

 points into the Pakhal's shelter. 

 " There he lies, the horrid sooar ! 

 Oh ! the rascal Ah ! the villain 

 may his destiny be evil, 

 and his female relatives all, 

 nose-clipped hussies, may they shamed be ! 



See ! The swine came from the sugar, 

 sugarcane of my own planting, 

 trampling crushing masticating, 

 night-long ravages in champing ! 

 When the sahibs were changing horses, 

 burst he all my fence asunder, 

 passed he thence into that thicket 

 thicket of the Pakhal Naddi. 

 Where yon mango tree's dark shadow 

 falls aslant the prickly palm-brake 

 lies he daily cursed ' dooker ! ' 



See ! I call my fellow-toilers 

 (hasten Bapoo ! hurry Rdma !) 

 and, to aid your honour's hunting, 

 join with them your beaters yonder." 



In the thickest of the covert, 

 e'en at midday, fall but rarely, 



