The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1899-05-26

temper tlln, ulEH VOICE lnuI0lllTeO III
English from behind my shoulder
"Sahihi Sahib Do you not know meY
Sahib, it is Gunga Dass, the telegraph
master.
spun round quickly and faced the
speaker
Gunga Dass q have, Of course, no
hesitation in mentioning the man s real
name) had known four years before
as Deccanee Brahman lent by the
Punjab government to one of the Khal-
STA states. He was in charge of branch
telegraph Office there, and when | had
last met him was jovial, full stomach
ed, portly government servant. with a
marvellous capacity for making bad
puns in English, a popularity which
made me remember him long after I
had forgotten his services TO me in his
official capacity 1t is seldom that a
Hindoo makes English puns.
Now, however, the man was changed
beyond all recognition. Caste mark,
stomach, slate colored combinations
and unctuous speech were all gone.
looked at withered skeleton, turban-
less and almost naked, with long, matted
hair and deep set, Goldfish eyes. But for
a crescent shaped scar on the left cheek,
the result Of an accident for which j
was responsible, should never have
known him. But il was individually
Gunga Dass and-for this was thank
ful-an English speaking native, who
might at least tell me the meaning of
all that had gone through that day.
The crowd retreated to some distance
as | turned toward the miserable figure
and ordered him TO show me some
method of escaping from the crater. He
held freshly plucked crow in his
hand and in reply TO my question
climbed slowly on a platform of sand
which ran in front of the holes and
commenced lighting a fire there in 81
lence. Dried bents, sand peoples and
driftwood burn quickly, and | derived
much consolation from the fact that he
lit them with an ordinary sulphur
match When they were in bright
glow and the crow was neatly spitted in
front thereof, Gunga Dass began with
out word Of preamble:
'There are only two kinds of men,
sar, the alive and the dead. When you
are dead, you are dead, but when you
are alive, you live. Here the crow
demanded his attention for an instant
as it twirled before the fire in danger
of being burned TO a cinder "If you
die at home, and do not die when you
come to the CHAT to be burned, you
come here.
Gunga Dass, who had lain down on a
tussock, motioned to me TO be quiet.
though fancy this was needless pre-
caution. In a moment, and before /
could see how it happened,' wild crow
who had grappled with the shrieking
and helpless bird was entangled in the
latters claws, swiftly disengaged by
Gunga Dass and pegged down beside
its companion in adversely. Curiosity,
it seemed, overpowered the rest of the
flock, and almost before Gunga Dass
and had time to withdraw to the tus-
sock two more captives were struggling
in the upturned claws of the decoys
So the chase-if l can give it so digni-
fed a name-continued until Gunga
Dass had captured seven crows. Five of
them he throttled at once. reserving
two for further operations another day
/ was good deal impressed by this. to
me, novel method of securing food and
complimented Gunga Dass on his skill
at is nothing TO do, said he ITO
morrow you aC5t do it for me. You
are stronger than | am.
This calm assumption Of superiority
upset me not little, and | answered
peremptorily Indeed, you old ruffian
What do you think | have given You
money for?'
Very well, was the unmoved re-
ply perhaps not tomorrow nor the
day after nor subsequently, but in the
end and for many years You will catch
crows and eat crows, and You will
thank your European God that you
have crows TO catch and eat.
| could have cheerfully strangled him
for this, but judged it best under the
circumstances to smother my resent
ment An hour later / was eating one
of the crows and, as Gunga Dass had
said thanking my God that | had
crow to eat Never as long as live
shall forget that evening meal The
whole population were squatting on the
hard sand platform opposite their dens,
huddled over tiny fires of refuse and
dried PUSHES. Death, having once laid
his hand upon these men and forborne
to strike, seemed to stand aloof from
them now. for most Of our company
We're old men, bent and worn and
twisted with years, and women aged to
all appearance as the fates themselves
They sat together in knots and talked
God only knows what they found to
discuss-in low, equable tones. curious.
ly in contrast to the strident babble
with which natives are accustomed to
make day hideous
Now and then an access of that sud.
den fury which had possessed me in the
morning would lay hold on a man or
woman, and with yells and imprecations
the sufferer would attack the steep slope
until batfied and bleeding, he fell back