"Catching lizards, _Huzoor!_ They are fat at this time."
My chill changed its cause incontinently. "You don't mean to say you eat lizards?"
He looked at me more gravely. "Wherefore not, _Huzoor_? The Bowriahs eat everything, except cats. Cats are heating to the blood, especially in spring time."
His air of well-defined wisdom tickled me; perhaps it touched me also, for, ere riding off, I asked him his name, thinking I might inquire more of him; for the sole reason of my tents being a few miles farther in this sandy wilderness was the due inspection of a Bowriah village which had been planted there, out of harm's way, by the authorities.
"Mungal, _Huzoor_" he replied. So I left him watching for the fat lizards, and cantered on over the desert.
Suddenly I drew rein with a jerk. There he was again in front of me sitting before another group of holes.
"Hullo!" I cried, "how on earth did you manage to get here, Mungal?"
The boy smiled his broad, white smile, "The _Huzoor_ mistakes. I am Bungal. Mungal is my brother over yonder." He stretched a thin dark arm into the desert whence I had come. Mungal and Bungal! Twins, of course! Even so the likeness was almost incredible. My memory could find no dissimilarity of any sort or kind--no outward dissimilarity, at any rate. The thought suggested an experiment, and I asked him what he was.
"_Huzoor! main Bowriah hone_," came instantly.
"Catching lizards, _Huzoor!_ They are fat at this time."
Positively my chill returned, making me say quite naturally, "What! do you eat lizards?"
"Wherefore not, _Huzoor_? The Bowriahs eat everything, except cats. Cats are heating to the blood, especially in, spring time."
Identical so far. The quaintness of the idea prevented me from disturbing it by further inquiry, so I rode on, dimly expectant of finding a third habitual criminal--say Jungal this time--watching for fat lizards at other holes. But I did not. They were twins only; Mungal and Bungal. Out of sheer curiosity I sent for them that evening, when I had finished my work of inspecting the adult males and females, listening to their complaints, and generally setting the odd little village on the path of virtue for the next three months. By no means a disagreeable occupation, for the Bowriahs have always a broad smile for a sportsman. Indeed, several of the most suspicious characters had promised me the best of _shikar_ on the morrow; and what is more, they kept their promise faithfully.