| PAGE | |
| Introduction | [ix] |
| The White, Yellow, and Black Leopard | [3] |
| Hathi Ganesh, the White-eared Elephant | [39] |
| Gidar, the Jackal, and Coyote, the Prairie Wolf | [51] |
| Raj Bagh, the King Tiger | [65] |
| The Tribe of King Cobra | [87] |
| The Story of the Monkeys | [103] |
| Story of Birds of a Feather | [119] |
| The Buffalo and Bison | [139] |
| Unt, the Camel | [155] |
| Big Tusk, the Wild Boar | [173] |
| Oohoo, the Wolf, and Sher Abi, the Crocodile | [189] |
| Sa'-Zada, the "Zoo" Keeper | [211] |
Illustrations
From Drawings by Arthur Heming
| PAGE | |
| Sa'-Zada had gathered all his comrades ... for the evening of the bird talk | [Frontispiece] |
| "The thing that had me by the paw was of a fiendish kind." | [19] |
| "And away we dashed." | [32] |
| "Then something strong grabbed me by the hind leg, and pulled me ..." | [42] |
| "Two ruffianly Bulls ... fought me while the men slipped great strong ropes over my legs" | [46] |
| "I heard my man say ... 'Strike me dead, if he hasn't ...'" | [61] |
| "But I could see that there was something very wrong ..." | [70] |
| "My sire ... sprang on a big Hathi's nose" | [82] |
| "And Baba used to come every day under the bungalow to play" | [90] |
| "I would stretch my body across it much after that fashion" | [98] |
| "And they all clambered on to my back" | [111] |
| "And sitting beside her, cried also, being but a little chap and all alone in the jungle" | [112] |
| "And as he coughed, soap bubbles floated upward." | [122] |
| "Leaving just a place for her sharp beak" | [125] |
| "Something I could not see struck me most viciously in the shoulder" | [146] |
| "Suddenly I heard a 'swisp' in the air, and my little curly-haired pet ..." | [150] |
| "I remained in the jhil until my master had lost the fierce Kill-look" | [161] |
| "But some way I felt like doing my best" | [166] |
| "It was at this time that Bagh killed so many of my people" | [182] |
| "'Into the horse's legs,' the old Dame had said" | [184] |
| "One could travel for days over the white snow" | [190] |
| "'Let me in, Tom, I am Jack,' pleaded the Hunt man" | [202] |
| "The grizzly ... bounced out not ten yards from the Cayuse" | [220] |
| "Bhalu ... pitched into the other two" | [230] |
Introduction
All his life Sa'-zada the Keeper had lived with animals. That was why he could talk to them, and they to him; that was why he knew that something must be done to keep his animal friends from fretting themselves to death during the dreadful heat that came like a disease over their part of the Greater City.
In the Greater City itself the sun smote with a fierceness that was like the anger of evil gods. The air vibrated with palpitating white heat, and the shadows were as the blue flame of a forge. Men and women stole from ovened streets, wide-mouthed, to places where trees swayed and waters babbled feebly of a cooler rest; even the children were sent away that they might not die of fevered blood.