A Rare Account of Xolos in 1890 India

Some years ago, during one of the many little Frontier Wars, I was appointed to a staff job as N.C.O. in charge of an inland Fort Armament situated in the North West Provinces, India, and as I had to make a journey daily of six miles to visit my Staff Officer, consequently left my wife alone in a fort except for a few gun lascars and native followers-“not very reliable companions.” So the wife suggested I might try and get a large dog to act as a pal during my absence. But to get a dog in that unholy jungle puzzled me. At last I found one in a bazaar, gave a native a rupee for it, rude collar, rope etc., all at one rupee. As to his breed, I made it out to be a cross rampore and jackal, fifty-fifty. Nevertheless, he was a dog-some dog-so I dragged him into the fort and duly presented him to the wife. “That’s not a dog,” said she, “it’s got no hair on it.” So, I explained its good points and “Piggy” was made one of the fort staff and did good and faithful service, as the following will show.

Firstly, wild cats got scarce, porcupines ceased to tear up the garden, hawks gave the native cook a chance to cut up his meat, etc. in peace. But he had dirty habits, such as laying in all the filthy he could find, eating any garbage- in fact, anything he could lay his paw on-hence his name, “Piggy.”

He hated natives- an exchange the natives reciprocated when they had a chance, which seldom came. They would have none of “Piggy” but he was the gamest dog I had handles. To see him dig out a porcupine or wild cats and not get the worst of either, was cruel sport to me, but the animals had to be got rid of as they overran the outworks where the natives lived.

Among the many things he did is the following true narrative: Early one morning we thought Piggy had gone mad, in fact I got my gun loaded in case he went for us, but he was trying to make me understand that something was under the wife’s charpoy (bed), and as he kept circling round this bed I really could not make out what was wrong-wild cat I suspected. Much worse- a deadly cobra coiled up and hissing loudly, so I moved the bed and at that the cobra sprang up a purdah and Piggy after him. Piggy won all right, he gave the reptile a crunch to its center and that put paid to cobra number one. During the day, cobra number two arrived-the female (they always go in pairs this kind of cobra). This time Piggy was less excited simply sat and looked at it, so I shot that one while I was in the fort. We were not bothered by any more snakes but the natives reported many in the outworks. Well, sad to relate, Piggy got to scare every native he came across, and while they were praying in the fort temple on special days, there were rags of many colors laying around before Piggy had done with them: so it looked as if Piggy having no snakes to go for, took the wriggling natives at prayer for something to nibble at.

Unfortunately, for me, my dog made a mistake of taking a choice undercut from the hindmost part of a native. In the end, I had to give the dog a round of buckshot and pay the native disablement benefits for three months at five rupees per month, but my dog was well worth more than fifteen dibs.