`` That food was eaten thirty seasons ago , '' said the Adjutant quietly . `` If we talk for thirty seasons more it will never come back . Tell us , now , what happened when the good waters were reached after thy most wonderful land journey . If we listened to the howling of every jackal the business of the town would stop , as the saying is . '' The Mugger must have been grateful for the interruption , because he went on , with a rush : `` By the Right and Left of Gunga ! when I came there never did I see such waters ! '' `` Were they better , then , than the big flood of last season ? '' said the Jackal . `` Better ! That flood was no more than comes every five years -- a handful of drowned strangers , some chickens , and a dead bullock in muddy water with cross-currents . But the season I think of , the river was low , smooth , and even , and , as the Gavial had warned me , the dead English came down , touching each other . I got my girth in that season -- my girth and my depth . From Agra , by Etawah and the broad waters by Allahabad -- '' `` Oh , the eddy that set under the walls of the fort at Allahabad ! '' said the Adjutant . `` They came in there like widgeon to the reeds , and round and round they swung -- thus ! '' He went off into his horrible dance again , while the Jackal looked on enviously . He naturally could not remember the terrible year of the Mutiny they were talking about . The Mugger continued : `` Yes , by Allahabad one lay still in the slack-water and let twenty go by to pick one ; and , above all , the English were not cumbered with jewellery and nose-rings and anklets as my women are nowadays . To delight in ornaments is to end with a rope for a necklace , as the saying is . All the muggers of all the rivers grew fat then , but it was my Fate to be fatter than them all .
The news was that the English were being hunted into the rivers , and by the Right and Left of XXXXX !
Adjutant English Gunga Jackal Right anklets cross-currents flood reeds years