"I'm no way superstitious as the parson called our Mat,
When he'd none sail with the herring fleet, 'cause he met old Susie's cat.
There's none can say I heeded, though a hare has crossed my road,
Nor burnt the nets as venomed, where a woman's foot had trode."
[4] On the Seaboard and other Poems, by Susan K. Phillips.
CHAPTER XIII
OF ANIMAL CALLS
"The beasts are very wise,
Their mouths are clean of lies;
They talk one to the other,
Bullock to bullock's brother,
Resting after their labours,
Each in stall with his neighbours.
But man with goad and whip,
Breaks up their fellowship,
Shouts in their silky ears
Filling their souls with fears.
When he has tilled the land
He says,—'They understand.'
But the beasts in stall together,
Freed from yoke and tether,
Say, as the torn flanks smoke,
'Nay, 'twas the whip that spoke.'"—R. K.
In English we say "Puss puss" to a cat. "Pooch pooch" is sometimes used in India, but "koor koor" is a more frequent word to dogs, cats, and domestic pets. "Toi-toi" is a call of the same kind. "Ti-ti" is a Kashmir call to fowls and ducks. "Ahjao!" the first syllable long drawn out, is the usual cry to fowls for feeding, and faqirs living in woodland places thus call peacocks and monkeys to a dole of grain. Though not a tail is visible at first, plaintive cries like those of lost kittens come faintly from aloft and afar in response, gradually growing louder. Then, one by one, slinging onward and downward, the creatures arrive with their leader. "Ah ah ah!" is also a common fowl and pigeon call. The sacred crocodiles in the Rajputana lakes are invited to dinner by the Brahmans with "Ao bhai!"—Come, brother! Elephants have quite a small dictionary of their own. There are separate words for—go quickly, sit, kneel with front legs, with hind legs, with all four, lie down and sleep, go slowly, lift a foot, rise, move backwards, stand still, break off branches, put me up with your trunk, make a salaam, and possibly more. All these are understood. A good mahout, too, is always talking to his beast, like the ploughman and ox-cart driver. When riding on an elephant those who have the knack of self-effacement and appearing to take no notice may hear quaint things sometimes, naïve comments on themselves and odd phrases of reproach and encouragement to the beast. One might, indeed, from these soliloquies, ascribe more faith in animal intelligence to the Oriental than he really cherishes. Many natives habitually talk to themselves by way of beguiling the tedium of a long road; and old women of the rustic class, when walking alone, frequently rehearse their family quarrels or bargainings with dramatic gestures.
Camels have but a limited vocabulary, nor do they seem to have brought with them the Arabic "tss, tss," which is the "woa" of the beast throughout his Western home from Morocco to Hadramaut. "Hoosh" is the Biloch driver's command for sit, but in the Eastern Punjab plain they say "jai." For go on they use the heavily aspirated word for shout, "hānkh,," which is also a great ox-word; whence comes "hānkh," a drive of wild animals. In Anglo-Indian slang there are Government servants who have to be "hānkhed" or driven to their work.
"Hiyo!" is a cow cry, but with none of the fine note of the English north-country "How up!" nor is there a pretty call like the "Cūsha! cūsha!" that Miss Ingelow has used so effectively in her beautiful poem, "A high tide on the coast of Lincolnshire." And as "Whitefoot" and "Lightfoot" are called to come up to the milking shed, so Indian cows are summoned by their names, often those of the days of the week, Tuesday (Mangal) being especially lucky. A deep, guttural, cork-drawing tock, very different from the English carter's click, and hard to learn, is much used for oxen, with a variety of tones of anger, encouragement, and remonstrance in the chest-deep "hān." When in a hurry or stuck in a rut, Indian carters produce noises that the most skilful ventriloquist would find hard to imitate. They rumble like a rusty tower clock in act to strike, they gurgle, grunt, click, moan, and shout strange words known only to oxen, punctuating every period with blows. "Cheeo, Cheeo" is said to oxen drinking, and as they are released from labour, and must be a welcome word.