VULTURES 59 



remains of their dead relatives. For the poor and 

 the parsimonious the vultures complete the work 

 commenced by the fire, so that truer than even its 

 author suspected is Michelet's description of vultures 

 as " beneficent crucibles of living fire through which 

 Nature passes everything that might corrupt the 

 higher life." When a body, with the face only singed, 

 is cast on to the Ganges, at least one vulture alights 

 upon it and proceeds to devour it as it is borne on 

 the waters of the sacred river ; the air and gases 

 in the corpse keep both it and the vulture afloat. 

 Sooner or later a rent causes the gases to escape, 

 then the corpse sinks suddenly and the vulture is 

 often hard put to it to reach the bank, for it cannot 

 fly properly when its wings are wet. The half -burnt 

 corpse is not always consigned to the river, and in 

 these circumstances the scene at the ghat when the 

 living human beings have left it is not one that is 

 pleasant to contemplate. But in India, where Nature's 

 back premises are so exposed, it is not always possible 

 to avoid it. More than once when strolling along a 

 river bank have I suddenly and unexpectedly come 

 upon a company of vultures squatting in an irregular 

 circle round some object, each fighting with its neigh- 

 bour for a place at the repast. The vultures are not 

 the only participants. Some pariah dogs run about 

 on the outskirts, every now and then making frantic 

 efforts to wedge themselves in between the vultures 

 and so obtain for their emaciated bodies a mouthful 

 of food. Some crows and kites are invariably present, 

 trusting to their superior agility to snatch an occasional 



