Outcastes (A Begging Leper and Pariah Dogs), by John Lockwood Kipling (1837-1911). This illustration in Chapter XI ("Of Dogs, Foxes, and Jackals") of Kipling's Beast and Man in India (1891), p. 295, comes as a contrast to the more exotic and attractive ones, but again shows Kipling's insight into everyday life. Two pariah dogs wait eagerly to pounce on anything that the wretched leper might be given. All are "outcastes" but the dogs, with no understanding of their lot and only their hunger to satisfy, are the less pathetic and the more lively. They are Kipling's focus here, and he happens to bring into his account a well-known missionary, to whom one such dog had become attached:
The pie-dog, pariah, or street dog, is usually rufous yellow, but all known dog tints occur, for Creole colours now diversify the tawny aboriginal race. Chronic hunger is the central fact of his life, which is one long search for food, and his pastime is another long search for fleas. As a rule he owns hnnself, but he sometimes selects a master and always belongs to a place.... he preserves, as we shall presently see, an innate friendliness which no neglect can quite eradicate.... Most Anglo-Indians have had an experience similar to that related by Bishop Heber in his journal of a sudden and unaccountable attachment on the part of a homeless pariah dog. [297-98]
It is easy to see how the older Kipling's eye for such creatures, and anecdotal accounts of them, could have inspired his son — or perhaps, since Rudyard and his sister were sent away to England so early, the gift for such writing was just passed on with his genes!
Scanned images, and commentary, by Jacqueline Banerjee. You may use the image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned it and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Bibliography
Bryant, Julius, and Susan Weber, eds. John Lockwood Kipling: Arts and Crafts in the Punjab and London. New York: Bard Graduate Centre Gallery; New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2017.
James, Elizabeth. "Kipling and Book Illustration." In Bryant and Weber. 361-399.
Kipling, John Lockwood. Beast and Man in India: A Popular Sketch of Indian Animals in Their Relations with the People. London: Macmillan, 1891. Internet Archive. Contributed by the Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh. Web. 22 January 2017.
Created 22 January 2017