"A lie is often amusing," declared Magh.
"That may be so," retorted Boar, "for even Sa'-zada has said that you are the funniest Animal in the Park."
"But why should we listen to Soor's squeaky tales?" snarled Bagh; "when he gets excited his voice puts me on edge."
"Well," interrupted Sa'-zada, "these meetings are so that each animal may have a chance to tell us what good there is in him."
"Then why should Soor waste our time?" queried Magh. "Even he will know no good of himself."
"I don't know about that," answered Sa'-zada. "I think every animal is for some good purpose, and we can tell better after we have heard Boar's story."
"Here are two of us, O Sa'-zada," said Grey Boar. "I, who am from Burma, know of the way of my kind in that land, and Big Tusk, who is also here, being my Comrade, is from Nagpore, in India, and can tell you how we are persecuted in the North. If I am all bad, can anyone say why it is? I am not an eater of Bhainsa, Men's Buffalo, like Bagh and Pardus; neither am I, nor any of my Kind, known as Man-killers. Even in Hathi's family have there been Man-killers—the Rogue Hathi."
"But it is said in the Jungles that you sometimes kill Bakri, the Men's Sheep," declared Magh.
"All a lie!" answered Grey Boar. "We are not animals of the Kill; neither do we wreck the villages of the Men, as does Hathi, nor drive the rice-growers from their lands—lest they be eaten—as do Bagh and Pardus."