THE NAEBADA VALLEY 47 



the fault for tMs particular purpose of giving no tongue 

 on game; I commenced the breed, wMch I maintained 

 for twelve years in India, with, a strain of pure Clumber 

 in the never-to-be-forgotten " Quail " — a dog that for 

 looks and quality surpassed anything of the breed I can 

 now discover in England. All his descendants were more 

 or less crossed with Sussex or cocker blood ; but none of 

 them ever gave tongue till the fourth generation, when 

 symptoms of it began to appear. On the whole, then, I 

 think I would prefer the heavy Sussex breed. 



On one occasion the whole of my spaniels were very 

 nearly being " wiped out " by one of a class of accidents 

 that must be looked for in India. I was shooting quail 

 in a grain field near Jubbulpur, with " Quail," " Snipe," 

 "Nell," and "Jess," when, on a sudden, they all began 

 to jump violently about, snapping at what seemed to 

 me to be a large rat. But coming nearer I made out 

 that it was a huge cobra, erect on his coil, and striking 

 right and left at the dogs. I lost no time in pelting 

 them off with clods of earth, and then cut the brute's 

 head off with a charge of shot; when I found that the 

 snake had been in the act of swallowing a rat, of which 

 the hind-legs and tail were protruding from his jaws, so 

 that his repeated lunges at the dogs had fortunately 

 been harmless. All these spaniels were famous ratters, 

 and had no doubt been attracted by the cobra's mouth- 

 ful, for they generally had, like all dogs of any experience 

 in India, a wholesome dread of the snake tribe. I never 

 lost any of these dogs by an accident, though exposed to 

 all the dangers of panthers, hyenas, wolves, snakes, and 

 crocodiles ; and all of them lived to a good age, in excel- 

 lent health. As with men, English dogs keep healthy 

 enough if properly treated in accordance with the climate. 



Of larger game, the principal animal met with in the 

 settled parts is the black antelope,^ which has probably 

 followed the clearings made by the immigrant races. 

 The aversion of this animal to thick uncleared jungle 

 has made it, in the Hindu sacred literature, a type of 

 the Aryan pale, of the land fitted for the occupation of 

 ^ Antelope cervicapra. 



