Invincible Naga

Chapter 10 The Burial

Abandoning the snake's body would turn dangerous for Senan and could also trigger a scuffle between natives and immigrants, as some immigrants were accused of killing and consuming snakes. Hence, laws were imposed against the killing of wild snakes, particularly, giant snakes and endangered ones.

To kill a wild snake, one must prove to the natives the threat he had from it. Otherwise, the indigenous people would betray him to the police or forest department. Earlier, similar incidents had taken place, and the Dhani had to visit the police station many times with all his laborers, including Pakirappa, to face the interrogation. The Dhani had to bribe higher officials to escape further legal proceedings.

Immigrant laborers and landowners even consumed non-venomous large constrictors such as mountain snakes and pythons. The laborers on the 700-acre had to face the investigation when a massive python was killed. None could figure out who had been alerting the police or rangers discreetly. Someone had a covert link with the rangers to deceive the Dhani and endanger their safety.

Pakirappa had been sitting on his haunches, his palm on his chin, watching the snake's body remorsefully. Pakirappa, the lone eyewitness, would stand for the snake, not for Senan. Moreover, he believed Senan erred by watching the snakes mating and triggering them.

'Think how to bury it,' Pakirappa said.

'Let's leave it here. Some wild animals will eat it,' Senan suggested.

'Give it some kind of burial,' Pakirappa remarked, enraged.

'None knows we killed it,' Senan assured him.

'The other cobra knows, and Naga too. Moreover, the bullet shot at its hood will reveal everything. Every bullet has a number and a mark on it that will tell from which rifle it is shot. It means it bears the address of the person who fired it,' Pakirappa said.

'Who's going to pull it out?' Senan retorted.

'If somebody probes into it, they'll prove it. The ranger, Kottaresh, will. He hates people like you from other states. He always complains that you men are thwarting the whole system of our forests.'

'Oh! Damn it! Let's first pull the bullet out then!' Senan said vehemently, hitting his inner palm with his fist a few times. He approached the snake's body and walked around it. Meanwhile, he recalled its staring, twitching the tongue, and occasionally, hissing at him.

Looking at the bloodshed death of the cobra, Pakirappa said, 'You've fired three shots. Two hit it. The third went somewhere else. It won't be easy to find it out in the undergrowth.'

'It'd be better to inform Dhani what happened,' Senan suggested.

'No, never. Dhani would fear its curse. Secondly, you triggered the cobras by watching them mating. Moreover, if the natives and Malakudiyas came to know about it all, they'd plot either to harm you or to drive you away. They take such huge cobras for the Naga incarnation.'

'How will they come to know about it? You're the only one who knows it all! And you'll never reveal it, will you?' Senan shrieked at Pakirappa. His last words had the flavor of threat, which Pakirappa could not neglect completely.

Pakirappa heaved a heavy sigh and said, 'The firing sound echoes across the farmlands and forests. Many people would've heard it. At night, it's a usual hunting sound. Since it's daytime, men would doubt it.'

'I'm not scared; I'll tell them the truth,' Senan confirmed.

While pondering, Pakirappa rubbed a few grey hairs sprouted hither and thither on his chin, took the betel quid from his pocket, stuck it into his mouth, chewed, and spat out its red juice frequently. Amidst it, he said, Nagas would not forgive it. I don't want to offend them at all.'

'Hmm! Mountain Deities! Nagas! What's the use of them all? When these wild creatures rush to attack us, no one comes to our rescue. We must save ourselves,' Senan retorted scornfully, looking at the high hills bearing the big rocks and dense dark forests. Whenever something goes against Pakirappa's beliefs or intentions, he brags a lot.

'Malakudiyas will come to know about it somehow,' Pakirappa said, as though he wished it to be so. He wiped out the sweat on his face with the hand towel tied around the waist of his dirty pants.

Senan yelled at him, 'Am I the first man to kill a snake here? You know that I killed it for my survival.'

'For survival!' Pakirappa exclaimed, mocked Senan looking around the whole forest as wondered at it, sneered, and then asked, 'Who will dare to watch snakes mating stealthily?'

'No, I never intended it. I was observing what animal it was,' Senan tried to convince him. But Pakirappa trembled in sheer disgust and anger.

Instead of standing with it anymore, Senan stormed against him, 'This is why none accepts your company. You'll end up on the 700-acre. Don't come seeking work anymore.'

Pakirappa's black and white mustache shivered above his long black lips, and he kept biting them in disdain.

'How'll you get laborers without me?' Pakirappa asked.

'We don't want men like you. Leave! Get lost!' Senan shrieked at Pakirappa, swinging the buttstock of his rifle at Pakirappa as if driving away an annoying animal.

'Who're you here, on our land? You're neither Dhani nor Soukarar for me to obey you. Above that, I'm a native here, and you?' Pakirappa asked like a thunderstorm and stopped.

Murmuring and abusing Senan in Tulu, Pakirappa picked up his hand towel fallen on the earth, cleared the dust off, slung it over his shoulder, and plodded to the 700-acre across the hedges.

Soon after Pakirappa left, a regret began to nibble Senan. After a while, Senan heard the violent growls of the mowing machine against the undergrowth on the 700-acre. Senan made sure that Pakirappa had resumed his work and would not either perceive or hear him.

Senan folded his hands, apologized to the witnessing mighty universe, and cried aloud, looking up at the sky. He kneeled before the snake's body and stretched his hand but hesitated to touch it. Little by little, with much effort, he could hold its tail. Then Senan slowly dragged the snake's body and dropped it into the river. 

(to be continued... )

betel quid - Betel nut or betel quid chewing is a practice in which areca nuts are chewed together with slaked lime and betel leaves for stimulant or narcotic effect. The preparation combining these ingredients is known as a betel quid.