Children of India

by Janet Harvey Kelman

Indian boys are very fond of flying kites. Their kites are square, and many of them are different from those we see, in another way, for Indian boys like to make their kites fight with each other, and in order to make the fight keener they draw the strings through a mixture of crushed pieces of glass and starch. After the string is dry, they run off with their kites. If they cannot find a better place, they climb on to the flat roofs of two houses near each other, and send off the kites, and then the fight begins. There are the two kites high up above the trees, a blue one and a green one. The green kite hits the blue, but neither of them is hurt. Then they dodge about in the air for a long time, for each boy is managing his kite well, and it seems as if neither would win, when suddenly the boy of the blue kite gives a sharp pull. His string has caught the string of the green kite and cut it, and the green is dropping to the ground out over the rice field yonder!

There are many curious sights for children to watch in India. One of these is the snake charmer, as he carries his strange pets in a basket or wound round his body. It is not only for his own amusement or for the pleasure of the little crowds that gather round him that the charmer plays. A good Hindu will not kill a snake, nor any other animal. But he is greatly afraid of serpents, so if he sees them near his house, or in his garden, he may send for a charmer to come and play his weird music till the snakes are fascinated, and wriggle to him, and let him shut them up in his basket. When he has carried them away he will take out their poison fangs, and keep them to add to his other pets.

A SNAKE CHARMER

Here is another tamer who has only a sparrow. He carries it safely in the folds of his robe, and when he wishes to show it to anyone he lays it down on the ground. It does not fly away, but hops about till he lays down a heap of beads, which have been hidden in another fold of his garment. Then he holds up a thread in the air. All is ready now, and the bird catches the dangling end, and climbs up the thread and down again. Then the little sparrow lifts the beads one by one, and threads them on to the string. It is all done in the cheeriest way, and the bird seems as happy as the little children who watch him.

If a boy lives near the jungle he may see the taming of a herd of elephants. First of all he will help to build two great strong fences in the forest. At one end the two fences are quite near each other, but at the other end they are far apart, so that there is a mile or more of jungle ground between them. At the narrow end of the fenced-in ground, there is a large enclosed space, and just where the two fences open into it there is a great scaffolding high up in the air. When all is ready the fence round the enclosure is tested and tried to make sure that it will not give way. Elephants roam the forest in herds, only now and again a lone elephant is found, and he is generally a very fierce one, whom tamers would not wish to capture. After all is ready at the Kheddah,[3] the hunters watch for a fine herd of elephants. When the message comes that there is a herd near, men go out into the forest. They separate and go quietly till they have formed a ring round the herd in every direction, except the one towards the wide opening to the fences. Then when the ring is complete, the men begin to close in towards the herd with shouts. The shouts come to the elephants from every direction except one, and as they seem to hear so many foes they do not know which to attack, and so they rush on wildly in the one direction from which no noise comes. The men close in towards the fences very carefully until the whole herd of elephants is within the wide end of the fenced ground. Each moment the yelling of the beaters seems nearer, and the herd rushes on wildly. Beyond the narrow end of the fences, they see what seems like open ground, and they rush for that. As the last one passes through the narrow space the great scaffolding is allowed to drop, and the elephants are prisoners.

But that is only the beginning of the work, and by far the easiest part. The taming has still to be done. After the herd is captive, tame elephants with riders on their backs tackle the full grown elephants of the herd one by one. Even a strong wild elephant is not a match for two or three tame ones, and the trained ones know their work so well that they soon get the wild creature they are surrounding close to a tree. That is their bit of the work. Then the mahout,[4] who has been on the back of one of the tame elephants, lets himself down to the ground. The tame elephants still keep the wild one close to the tree, and hem him in to keep him from attacking the man who is on the ground, for he is in great danger. He has to slip ropes round the legs of the wild elephant and fasten him to the tree. The first ropes are the most dangerous ones, for when the great beast feels that he is caught, he is desperate, and strikes out in every direction; but the drivers are quick and clever, and soon their prisoner is tied so tightly to the tree that he can do no harm to anyone. Then when he is firmly fixed there, the mahouts try to make friends with him. They bring him fruit and sugar-cane, and all the things he likes best to eat, and they stay by him, talking to him and singing till he grows quite at home with them. Sometimes they can loosen his cords within a fortnight, and lead him off between two others.

There are many other strange sights and sounds in the jungle, and some of them are greatly feared by Indian boys. Though there are many Hindus who will not kill any animal because of their caste rules, there are others who do, and some of them are very clever in catching and killing tigers.

The tiger is a very cruel creature that will kill even when he is not hungry, and if one begins to eat men as well as cattle the villagers live in terror of him. He watches warily by the roadways for any stray passer-by, and he will follow a bullock cart for miles in the hope that some one of those who walk by it will fall behind, and give him the chance of attacking him alone. And so men learn to fear the “pug” marks of the tiger with a terrible fear, and to shudder at the thought of his silent footsteps. When the villagers find that there is a tiger making his lair near their village, and coming to it day after day to steal their cattle or to carry off their children, they first find out where he drinks. That is easily done, for the soft clay near the bank of the river keeps the marks of his paws. Then when they are sure of that, they get three strong nets and hang them from upright bamboos across the path by which he must come to drink. The tiger comes quietly along, and ere he knows he is entangled in one of the nets and has pulled down the first pair of bamboo poles. The more he struggles the more the meshes trouble him, and if he does manage to break through, all trammelled as he is with the broken net, it is only to dash into the next one. There he lies wild and helpless, and struggles till he is worn out. In the evening, the villagers come with their spears and attack the prisoner, but they do not like him to be too quiet. They like him to growl at them, and to try to leap at them. It seems too easy a victory if he is dull and stupid ere they reach him.

The jungle is full of interesting plants and animals, and we could fill a large book with their names and habits, but we must only take time to speak of one other creature. It will form a link for us between jungle sights and sounds, and the splendour of the courts of the olden rulers of which children may still see relics in some parts of India. The animal that links the palace with the jungle is the cheetah, for six cheetahs have been taken from their wild haunts to guard the Uzar Bhagh Palace in Baroda. Through the day they are muzzled, and wander freely in the gardens. They are like small leopards, and they steal about amongst the trees or lie sleeping in the sun through the long hot hours. But each evening they are shut up in the palace. Their muzzles are taken off, and all night long the fierce creatures wander through the passages and halls. For within the closed doors that they guard, the jewels of Baroda, the richest in all India, lie. In the collar of state alone, there are five hundred diamonds, and some of them are as large as walnuts. Round the edge of this collar three bands of emeralds run, and each emerald in the outer row is about an inch square, while a great diamond, that is called the star of the Deccan, hangs down in front. There are many other treasures there besides the wonderful collar, and the most interesting of them are a rug and two pillow covers. The rug is more than ten feet in length and six feet wide, and it and the pillow covers are made of strings of pearls woven together and decorated with diamonds. These jewelled cloths brought the present ruler of Baroda to his throne in a strange way.