JACKALS. 189 
will have noticed another relic from the untamed state of our 
dog pets in the habit of turning round and round before settling 
to take rest. 
I suppose that no account of a jackal would be complete 
without some reference to its midnight howl, which, to my 
mind, is one of the most ghastly and hideous that can well be 
imagined; yet I have known some Anglo-Indians to be quite 
fascinated with it, as I have known, also, some to be enamoured 
of the fruit of the durian. Truly, “there is no accounting for 
taste.” The howl has been described by some as the barking of 
dogs, mixed with the audible cry of human distress ; by others 
it has been compared to the sound of children under severe 
chastisement. But, perhaps, the best idea of these yells is that 
well-known jingle devised by one of our countrymen, which, 
when set to the tune of the animal’s cry, and modulated as it 
invariably is, runs thus : — 
A dead Hindu ! a dead Hindu ! 
Where? Where? Where? Where? 
Here ! Here ! Here ! Here ! 
I must not omit, even at the risk of being thought tedious, to 
refer to the “ Siyar Singhi,” or “ Jackal’s horn,” called by the 
Tamils the “ Narri-comboo.” The native idea is that the 
jackal which first utters a cry of an evening has a bony out- 
growth on the forehead — a sort of horn, covered with hair, which 
it is thought very lucky to become possessed of. If this horn is 
put amongst jewels no robber would dare to touch them ; while 
others believe it to be a very powerful philtre ; and Mr. W. 
Crooke, in his Indian folk-lore, says that the “ Korwas ” of 
Mirzapur tie it, or a resemblance of it, round the necks of 
their children as a charm, and to keep off the “ evil eye.” 
The cry of a single jackal, without response, and known as 
the “ Ikyreah ” is, according to Mr. John Barlow, a dreaded 
omen amongst “Thugs” and “Phansigars” (literall}'^ stranglers), 
and, when heard in any neighbourhood where they may be, they 
at once quit the spot as unlucky ; while, on the other hand, if 
they hear the usual ‘ Roh-rine,’ which in Sanscrit means the 
“ night-cry,” or general chorus of jackals, they pounce upon the 
first person they meet as a victim, in perfect confidence that their 
goddess, Devi, will befriend them. Thuggee is now, happily, 
almost a crime of the past, and India may well bless the day 
when Christianity and western institutions came to be introduced 
amongst her singularly varied nationalities and peoples. 
J. F. A. McNair. 
