Part 21

"Woe, woe to the conquered!!!...

"Ye may lay aside your fears! Do lay aside your fears, for fear is cruel. Ye have no need to fear us any more. We are your prisoners of war, and spared to make a human holiday....

"We killed or left alone, and cannot guess why ye do otherwise; but we cannot understand ye at all....

"We look around into daylight that is dimmer than darkness, and see not why we are here. We submit, because we must; and we are dying, dying, dying! All your devices but prolong our deaths! For life needs liberty. There is no life in prison for cats, or for men....

"The species all about to die salute ye!

"Have pity on us, O men!!!"

XXV

THE FOX IN THE SUEZ CANAL

One afternoon, about the end of the nineteenth century, a steamer was passing southwards through the Suez Canal, and as I sat in the shade on its deck and looked eastwards over the desert, I saw a little animal with a bushy tail running along the ridge at the canal side, keeping level with the steamer. A slight occasional glance in our direction showed that he knew we were there. At first, he appeared to be a jackal; but, when glasses were turned upon him, we agreed that he was more like the fox indigenous in the deserts and the lands adjacent, the "fennec" as it is called, the "little fox" of Scripture that is said to spoil the vines in one passage. It is a true fox; but smaller in the body and bigger in the eyes and in the ears than other foxes, and more easily tamed. By destroying vermin, he perhaps balances his account with humanity, and is no more considered an enemy than the swallow. He is said to eke out his want of strength by diligence, and often escape his enemies by digging himself into safety. Needless to say, unlike many other foxes, this one digs his own hole, and is never without one, so that it must have been of him that Jesus was thinking, when He said: "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head" (Matt. viii. 20).

A lady, who was watching him with delight, was afterwards sorry that she pointed him out to various idle men. She intended only to give them pleasure; and did not in time bethink her, in what their pleasure lay. Complacent cries of sham excitement were soon followed by--"ping"--a shot from the bridge; and the bright little fox ceased, suddenly, to run abreast of us, fell suddenly lame, and crawled aside.

"Well shot!" cried several raucous voices....

Some Arabs, working near, looked up to see what was being fired at, and leaned on their tools, and spoke to each other, looking, from time to time, at the steamer and in the direction of the fox. In 1886, living at Suez some days, I had had various talks with such men, seeking to sound their sentiments on things in general; and on this occasion, I felt that I knew, as well as if I had heard it, that they were saying to each other--"What bloody brutes!"

What seemed to confirm this guess, was that I did overhear our Indian deck-scrapers making remarks....

Three or four days later, a fellow-passenger was still gloating over the glorious achievement. We were near the south of the Red Sea by this time. Thinking to make him sorry for the wounded beast, I said--"The fox is likely to be dead of starvation and thirst by now."

"Ha, yes," said he, "it isn't likely to live much longer after a Martini bullet has perforated its thigh, ha, ha, ha!"

"People don't shoot foxes in England."

"They kill them in another way. They're just as cruel.... Of course, one would rather have galloped after him; but what can you do from a ship's deck?"

"Not gallop, certainly." I tried another tack. "It is thought wrong, in the Highlands, I have heard, to shoot at the deer, unless you are likely to kill."

"No?" He seemed surprised; but after a pause, he could explain the mystery. "It would spoil the venison," said he.

"Do you think the man who shot the fox in the thigh has nothing to be sorry for?"

"He could not be sure of the head. I think that, on the whole, he did very well. He was in a moving ship, and it was running."

"Are you not sorry for the fox?"

"Not at all."

I was tempted to say I was sorry for him; and could have said so, sincerely. But, after all, he was young, and a human being, though mentally and morally less developed than the Indian seamen or the Arab labourers. I was loath to hurt his feelings. He deserved as much consideration as--the fox. So we changed the subject.

XXVI

SOLIDARITY AMONG THE BRUTES

1. ELEPHANTS

Our Indian newspapers recently (1909) reproduced reports of a public meeting in London, which had been made remarkable by the presence of the veteran Mr Selous, who had assured inquirers that the elephants do really assist each other in distress. He doubtless gave details of many modern instances; but the newspapers omitted them. So here is one.