170 ROUGHING IT IN SOUTHERN INDIA 



saw it happen — Pintu's agony of grief made him quite ill. 

 Lucky for him, the curses he invoked on his own head were 

 unheard except by us. He also cursed every female ancestor 

 of that panther's in several languages in a way that made 

 F., who understood, almost laugh, though we were both 

 nearer crying. Punch was a short-legged, stodgy dog, 

 who never wanted to run off, and was as contented on the 

 lead as free. The consequence was that he was very often 

 allowed to walk amongst the rest loose. Neither did he lag 

 behind. He was an all-round good little person, and as game 

 as the best when wanted. For porcupines he had not his 

 equal ; many a time did he come backwards out of an 

 1 earth ' to have the quills pulled out of his body by the 

 dozen, only to dart in again immediately — insensible to 

 pain when there was any sport in the air. I have said that 

 he never lagged behind, but he must have done so that 

 once ; for all anybody knew was that a choking cry was 

 heard, then a rush through the jungle, Punch missing, and 

 every other dog gone frantic. I shall never forget the 

 misery of that search for him, only to pick up his broken 

 collar, and find a few patches of yellow and black hair 

 on the bushes — nothing more. It saddened the whole trip 

 for us far more than his loss in some shikar tussle would 

 have done, for that would only have been one of the chances 

 of war. 



From the day when Pintu, the poor vagrant boy, entered 

 our service there was never again any need to wonder or 

 worry as to whether the creatures on the premises were 

 thirsty and unable to reach water, or whether their tethering 

 ropes were twisted. He hovered everywhere, not in any 

 spirit of spying on others and their duties, but from the 

 sheer love in him for all living, speechless things. 



We never met with that nature in any other Eurasian, 

 or in any native. He was with us for years, seeing many 

 generations of dogs, his own growing grey the while ; leaving 



