The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1899-05-30
THE STRANGE RIDE
OF
MORROWBlE JUKEs.
BY RUDYARD KlPLING.

BY RUDYARD KlpLING.

the conversation: "And how do you
live here from day to day. What do
you do7" The question elected exactly
the same answer as before, coupled
with the information that "this place
is like your European heaven. There is
neither marrying nor giving in mar
riage."
Gunga Dass had been educated at
mission school and, as he himself adj
mitted, had he only changed his reli-
gion like wise man." might have
avoided the living grave which was
now his portion. But as long as was
with him fancy he was happy.
Here was a sahib, a representative Of
the dominant race. helpless as child
and completely at the mercy of his ma
tive neighbours In a deliberate, lazy
way he set himself to torture me as
schoolboy would devote a rapturous
half hour to watching the agonies Of an
impaled beetle or as ferret in blind
burrow might glue himself comfortably
to the neck Of rabbit The burden of
his conversation was that there was no
escape "of no kind whatever, and that
I should stay here till / died and was
Thrown on to the sand" If it were
possible to forejudge the conversation of
the damned on the advent of new soul
in their abode, l should say that they
would speak as Dunga Dass did to me
throughout that long afternoon. was
powerless to protest or answer. all my
energies being devoted to struggle
against the inexplicable terror that
threatened to overwhelm me again and
again. can compare the feeling to
nothing except the struggles of man
against the overpowering nausea of the
channel passage-only my agony was
of the spirit and infinitely more terri
BILE.
As the day wore on the inhabitants
began to appear in full strength to catch
the rays of the afternoon sun, which
were now sloping in at the mouth Of
the crater. They assembled in little
knots and talked among themselves
without even throwing glance in my
direction. About o'clock, as far as I
could judge. Gunga Dass rose and dived
into his lair for moment, emerging
with live crow in his hands. The
wretched bird was in most draggled
and deplorable condition, but seemed to
be in no way afraid of its master. Ad-
vancing cautiously to the river front.
/ Gunga Dass stepped from tussock to
tussock until he had reached a smooth
patch Of sand directly in the line Of the
boats fire. The occupants Of the boat
took no notice. Here he stopped and.
with couple of dexterous turns Of she
wrist, pegged the bird on its back with
outstretched wings As was only nat
ural. the crow began to shrek at once
and beat the air with its claws. In q
few seconds the clamor had attracted
the attention Of bevy of wild crows
on shoal few hundred yards away.
where they were discussing something
that looked like corpse Half dozen
crows few over at once to see what was
going on. and also. as it proved. to at
tack the pinioned bird.
Gunga Dass. who had lain down on q
tussock, motioned to me to be quiet.
though fancy this was needless pre-
caution. In moment, and before
could see how it happened, a wild crow
who had grappled with the shrieking
and helpless bird was entangled in the
latter's 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 80 digni-
fed 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
''It is nothing to do, said he. ITO.
morrow you must do it for me. You
are stronger than am.
This calm assumption Of superiority
upset me not little. and answered
peremptorily Indeed, you old rufian
What do You think / have given you
money for2'
Every 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 1 had q
crow to eat Never as long as live
shall I 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 rushes. 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