126 HAUNTS AND HOBBIES 



rounded by waste land, and, curiously enough, both 

 the warrens were almost immediately adjoining high- 

 roads. I came on one of these warrens when walking 

 in the evening, a little after sunset. No full-grown 

 jackals were visible, but a number of young jackals, 

 quite puppies, were frisking about outside. I had with 

 me a little spaniel ; he seemed to recognize in the young 

 jackals creatures of his own kind, for he immediately 

 ran to them and joined in their gambols. I was in 

 terror lest they should bite him, but my apprehensions 

 were groundless. They played with him most amicably, 

 and so much did he enjoy their society that I had 

 much trouble in getting him to leave them and follow 

 me home. He brought with him evidence of their 

 companionship in their terrible odour. It was only 

 after a most elaborate ablution with soap and hot 

 water that it was possible to allow him to enter the 

 house. 



The smell of a jackal resembles that of a fox, but 

 it is more powerful and more offensive ; it diffuses 

 itself through the atmosphere to a surprising distance. 

 The four jackals, whose visit I have above described, 

 never approached nearer to the house than at least 

 sixty yards, yet before they left their scent had 

 become wafted through the air to where I sat inside at 

 the open window, and was for some time most un- 

 pleasantly perceptible. 



The odour of the jackal is not his only objectionable 

 quality. His cry at night is very distracting ; it is 

 especially so at this season of the year, when the bed- 

 room doors are always left more or less open. Heard 



