156 ZOOLOGICAL SKETCHES. 



is about the only remedy; for Brahm's favorites are too 

 conscious of their immunities to mind a curse or the 

 explosion of a blank cartridge. Human patience has 

 its limits, and the holiest Brahmin would not see his 

 last piece of bread snatched from his mouth without 

 reaching for a boot-jack ; but all fruits of our Mother 

 Earth he would readily share with the eupeptic demi- 

 gods. You may prevent the baboons by anticipation, — 

 gather your fruit in time ; but you must not expel the 

 holy marauders, nor even forestall them altogether: 

 pious farmers always leave a tenth of the grain-crop for 

 the pigeons and monkeys. If a sacred crocodile takes a 

 free lunch out of the calves of a true believer, it is guilty 

 of misdemeanor, but it must be tried by its peers in 

 holiness, — a court of true and accepted Brahmins. Un- 

 less the plaintiff prefers an indemnity, the sportive 

 saurian may be found guilty, and is liable to be ex- 

 pelled from the stipend-pond. Under no circumstances 

 must the layman take the law in his own hands; even 

 secular magistrates have no competent jurisdiction in 

 cases of that kind. On the cow-question casuists differ, 

 but they agree that the animals must never be kicked 

 out. You must try persuasion first, and gentle force 

 only as a last resort. " Oh, my son, oppress not the 

 poor!" Von Orlich heard a Hindoo farmer adjure a 

 voracious bull. " Come, my child, I will feed thee with 

 honey if thou wilt follow me." The bull continued to 

 help himself. " Provoke not the weak," resumed the 



