JUNGLE SURPRISE

Waipa Post, Volume 32, Issue 1777, 1 July 1926, Page 6

JUNGLE SURPRISE

JACKALS' WAR COUNCIL.

The recent account in the Calcutta Statesman of an Indian Civil. Servant's experience in the jungle when he suddenly came upon the unusual sight of a wolves' council meeting, has prompted Mr F des Vouex to write to The Spectator detailing an encounter which he had in India years ago with a large pack of jackals. "Quartered at Sialkot in the Punjab," he states, "where sport was limited, to an occasional day's pig-sticking by invitation of the Maharajah of Cashmere, which invitation was not forthcoming as often as we thought it might have been, we decided to form a pack of hounds of our own to hunt the jackal. Kind fox-hunting friends sent us some drafts from home, and we managed to muster a pack of ten couples, which we proudly dubbed "The Sialkot Hounds"—no bobbery pack's for us.

"A rough kennel, a few standing tents, thirty mile s from the station on the further bank of the Jumna River, was established as our camp and base of operations. No hunting fixtures could be made, for, subjected to the whims of our commanding officer on the question of leave, whose stern sense of military duty did not always respond to the sound of the horn, we had to arrange an impromptu day when we could. Having fixed our day, we rode out to camp in the afternoon, and met at dawn on the following morning. An uncomfortable hour, but it had to be so, as from then till nine o'clock was the only time during which itiiere was any scent, thanks to the heavy dew. "The dawn meet at the cross-roads was a somewhat grim and chilly affair. A dozen riders in nondescript polo kit. No red, coats enlivened the scene, hounds dropped their sterns at the unusual darkness of the hour; ttye master, however, on his gallant grey, dressed in black coat and white breeches towering over his native huntsman in flowing turban 'mounted on a small pony, did give a touch of dignity to the assembly. "On one occasion, not being able to go with the others in the afternoon, I arranged to ride to camp by night. Arrived at the last stage of my journey, I was met by a native groom with a fresh pony. He told me there was a jackal tamasha going on some miles ahead. Asked as to the meaning of this fussy, quarrelsome meetinghad they found some dead animal or other prey?—he said, he thought not; it was only a tamasha.

"Another mile or two along the sandy track brought me within sound of the meeting. A few sharp barks opened the debate; then a long wailing concerted howl of protest at some imaginary wrong; a lull; then on again at stated intervals with the sobs and chorus.

"Curious to see what was going on I pulled up when I got to the jackals' meeting place. On a low mound, a few hundred yards from the track, a large pack of jackals, about fifty in number, was clearly visible in &ft moonlight; some (no doubt the elders) were squatted on their haunches on the top of the mound; others wandered skulked around, the s'ide s and base of the hill. The din they managed to make in the stillness of the night was uncanny, almost unbelievable.

"My Arab pony pricked his little ears and gave,an answering neigh., much to .my disgust, a s I had no wish for the pack to come and talk politics to us. However, they paid not the slightest attention and carried on as before. I don't suppose, in those days, that I formulated to myself any clear idea about the parliaments of animals or of men, but it did strike me as odd that whereas these animals generally hunted by night, either singly or in pairs, so many should, now be gathered together.

"And quite rightly, I think, had the jackals protested. Very few white men had ever come into that part of their country; certainly no master of hounds dressed in unusual attire, armed with hounds and horn, had ever before disturbed the jackal at dawn, as he returned to his lair after a night's scavenging. What right had we to invade his sacred realms!"