156 
and their long barenecks extended, shrieking 
and hissing, and menacing the dogs, as the 
latter assailed the already half-demolished 
carrion. The dogs, on the other hand, whilst 
being interrupted in the act of enjoying their 
spoil, spitefully relinquished, at intervals, 
their disputed meal, attacking the phalanxes 
of wings with a greedy vindictiveness, whilst 
the birds retreated for a while from the im- 
mediate scene of the disgusting carnival. 
The sun was fiercely branding these busy 
scavengers of the offal of the plain, whose 
blood must have been rankling under its 
influence, when the hunters galloped up to 
the spot, and charzed, spear in hand, the 
grumbling pack. Loathsome indeed they 
looked! The foul mange had eaten off the 
hair from their bodies, and a raw surface, an 
angry red tint, appeared to glow with a con- 
suming heat over the morbid complexion of 
these filthy satellites of animal corruption. 
The knell of death—that horrid bay pro- 
ceeding from the dog of the wilderness, which, 
whilst it falls upon the ear, appals the heart, 
was now uttered in the hollow intonations of 
despair. They were too indolent to retreat 
before the froward spear, but ululated their 
death elegy upon the spot; submitting to 
the impending fate that awaited them with- 
out apparently evincing a reluctant feeling— 
like willing martyrs to a meritorious cause. 
During this short-lived onslaught, the 
greedy birds kept aloof, at a little distance 
off, watching with exulting expectancy the 
additional features that attended their partly 
devoured banquet. The same dogs which, 
bat a few minutes before, had forced them 
to surrender up their interests in the carrion 
spoil, had, they perceived, now become the 
undisputed victims to their indiscriminate 
appetite ; and the hunters had not departed 
one hundred yards from the scene, when, on 
looking round, they observed the feathered 
host of these busy destroyers incorporated 
with the bodies of the slam—like so many 
sappers exercising their pickaxes in defacing 
the objects they were desirous to demolish, 
whilst, at intervals, the vulturine scream 
assailed their ears, the gladsome tidings with 
which this death-abiding bird heralds to his 
mate, afar off, that flesh is awaiting him. 
Near a deserted bungalow, the roofing of 
which had fallen in, and the walls .of which 
were in the last stages of decay (whilst a few 
scattered surrugfhur (custard-apple) and guava 
trees that had survived a lapse of years 
(tending to denote to the occasionally passing 
stranger that the spot was once inhabited by 
some English officer, whose fate had been 
prematurely sealed in an Indian climate, as 
had been that of thousands before him), lay 
reposing in the shade, a large parriah dog. 
He was of an unusual size, and on observing 
the horsemen, and suspecting them to be 
KIDD’S OWN JOURNAL. 
unwelcome intruders, he challenged their 
approach with a latrant yell; but perceiving 
that they were intent upon his person, he 
rose from his recumbent position, and, at a 
slack pace, took to the plain, This was a 
chance not to be thrown away. The hunters 
rode in pursuit, and the parriah, finding that 
they were at his heels, and in earnest with 
him, redoubled his speed, and effected the 
wolf-escape. 
He was a powerful animal, of a ferocious 
aspect, full of wind and vigor. And although 
he was not a sufficient match for the many in 
numbers that followed him, he nevertheless, 
by his adroitness, contrived to bafile them 
in their pursuit of him, by having recourse 
to an artful stratagem. There was a deep 
ravine, of some considerable breadth, that 
lay on the side of the highroad leading to the 
town of Cuttack, which no horse could com- 
pass ina leap, and joining this chasm was a 
thick Kurah (wild pine-apple) jungle. Whilst 
his pursuers were pressing him closely, he 
suddenly disappeared before their eyes ; and 
before they could reconcile themselves to the 
loss of the chase, two of the gentlemen out of 
the five fell with their horses,into the chasm, 
and were injured most seriously, insomuch 
that they abandoned the sport for the day. 
The dog effected his escape, but was never 
afterwards seen nor surprised in his former 
forlorn haunts. 
For several successive days this sport was 
followed up with perseverance and energy ; 
and after some scores of these animals had 
been sacrificed to the zeal of the hunters, the 
latter dropped the practice, owing to the 
intense heat of the weather, and the mazis- 
trates appointed dooms (dog. destroyers) with 
instructions to them to despatch every animal 
of the above description that came under 
their notice. In less than three days after 
this warrant was signed, no fewer than four 
hundred and seventy canine faces were ex- 
hibited on the premises of the magistrate’s 
cutcherry. The consequence was, that for 
some length of time after this event, the 
sight of a dog in the district under consi- 
deration was a rare spectacle. 
But the abatement of one nuisance en- 
gendered another. The carcases of bullocks, 
horses, and other animals, which lay dispersed 
on the face of the country around, were left 
to decompose ; and they poisoned the atmos- 
phere with the foul and fetid gases which 
evolved from them, bringing about disease 
and death in other shapes among the inhabi- 
tants. For the vultures—not being localised 
in the vicinity, but birds which range over 
a vast field of territory, in quest of carrion— 
were found to be too few in numbers to con 
sume the cadaverous nuisances, whilst the 
open country around Cuttack was unfavor- 
able to the tenancy and suitableness of the 
eee 
