We Killed Mangy-Dog

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Read an extract from:
We Killed Mangy-Dog/Nós Matamos o Cão Tinhoso
Luis Bernardo Honwana
(First published 1964)

THERE WERE TWELVE OF US WHEN WE WENT TO THE ABATTOIR ROAD WITH MANGY-DOG

Quim, Gulamo, Zé, Changai, Carlinhos, Issufo and Chico went in the middle of the road with their rifles pointing forwards. behind them went Farouk who didn't have a rifle, dragging Mangy-Dog. Mangy-Dog didn't want to walk, and shined like hell with his mouth closed. We, Telmo and I on one side, Chichorro and Noratamo on the other, also carried guns, and we went half-way into the bush, beating the grass like Quim had told us to. I didn't go far into the grass, because when a micaia tree got in my way I made a detour towards the Abattoir Road where the rest of the gang was going. Every now and then, Quim had to ask me if I was beating the grass or not, because all I wanted to do was to look at Mangy-Dog, whining like hell, with that noise of bones inside that you could hear when Farouk pulled hard, the same as at the school, by the chicken's dust beds, when he walked.

When we go to the abattoir, Costa's servant boys came out to see the gang going past. "Where bossies going? You take gun - go hunt? But that dog, he no good!"

The boys thought Quim was saying it in fun so they didn't move, but Quim pointed his gun at them and repeated: "Scram, niggers, scram niggers, you black swine!"

They all disappeared in an instant, running so fast their heels knocked against their backsides, as Quim said.

"Hey, man, come and help me" - it was Farouk - "Let some other guy come and pull this bugger of a dog..."

"Balls, no! That's not fair, we'd agreed on that...Well, Okay..." Quim looked at me. "Touchinho, you go!"

The others stopped a little behind. I knew this, but I couldn't manage to stop. Mangy-Dog went ahead of me and I was the one who was going slowly. I saw him stretching his head forward and sticking his tail up stiff. He was bent right over forwards with his leg muscles bulging from the strain of trying to escape from the rope that was tied tightly around his neck.

We had got right into the bush, but we were at a place where there were no trees, only grass. The trees were in front of us, and Mangy-Dog wanted to go there. sometimes you couldn't even see him in the high grass, but sometimes he went so fast that the rope stretched taut, and then I had to walk a bit faster, not to feel in my hand, in my head, here inside through my whole body, the strain of his bones, creaking, creaking, creaking.

I stopped and the strain all came on the rope and right inside me. I turned round slowly, and saw Quim putting a cartridge in his double-barrelled 12 calibre.

Now he was talking to Choco, with the cartridge half stuck into one of the barrels, and pushing it slowly with his finger into the chamber.

Mangy-Dog threw himself forward, and whined with his mouth closed, with those bones inside his skin, and me feeling all that coming along the stretched rope right into my body.

"Quim, man, put in a No 4, don't be an ass, with that you'll wreck up the whole dog, man!"

"Listen here, where are you taking that thing?" I was standing still, feeling all of Mangy-Dog that came along the stretched rope. Mangy-Dog turned towards me and leapt backwards, whining in all directions. I knew that he was looking at me with his blue eyes, but I couldn't stop looking at the gang, who had made a half circle and were walking round without making any noise, continually loading and unloading their guns. Quim, on top of a rock, looked at me, with the cartridge half into one of the barrels of his 12 calibre. Farouk held tightly on to my single shot .22 and had already put a soft nose bullet into the barrel. he was the only one who wasn't always fiddling with the bolt to load and unload the gun.

"Quim, put in a No 4 or some other number. Mister Duarte said we could all have a shot too!..."

Mangy-Dog was not pulling now, and suddenly I felt the rope slacken. After a while Mangy-Dog leaned against my legs and began to whine softly.

Quim finished putting the cartridge into one of the barrels of his rifle and was straightening it out slowly until the chamber closed. The gun was pointing at me. I couldn't look there any ore, but it was because of Quim's eyes - they were looking at me half-shut and shining, although he wasn't crying. Mangy-Dog looked at me when I turned to him. His eyes had no shine in them al all, but they were enormous and full of tears that trickled down his muzzle. They frightened me, those eyes, so big, looked at me like someone asking for something without wanting to say it. When I looked at them, I felt a weight much heavier than when I had the rope all trembling from being so stretched, with the creaking of bones trying to escape from my hands, and with the whines that came out in squeaks, smothered in his closed mouth.

"Quim, we needn't kill the dog, I'll keep him, I'll treat his sores and hide him so he doesn't go round the village anymore with all those sores that make everybody sick..."

Quim looked at me as if he'd never set eyes on me in his life before, be he said to the others: "You can go to blazes, I'll shoot with whichever cartridge I feel like, and pronto!"

Quim looked at Gulamo and asked slowly in a soft voice: "You son of a bitch, do you want me to bash you mug in for you?"

"Bash yourself! Don't think you can play the big boss round here, I'm not scared of you." Gulamo turned towards Quim, with his gun and all.

"Listen here, do you want to start something with me, you blasted little coolie?"

"That's what your grandmother was, you scruffy little twerp! Didn't they ever tell you that in the village where you came from? You portugoose!"

Mangy-Dog whined softly and rubbed himself against my legs, trembling. Farouk held tightly on to my gun and aimed at me, his feet apart. But he looked at Mangy-Dog, his eyes big with fright. All the others' eyes were big with fright when they looked into Mangy-Dog's blue eyes.

"Hey, gang, let's finish with this - it's late and it's nearly dark. Don't you start shooting the lights out of each other now..."

Quim stopped and turned on Changai: "Don't talk to me like that, d'you hear? No coolie insults me without getting his face bashed in! Nobody dares to play the fool with me...Another squeak from you and you'll feel it on you mug...You or anybody else. If you try anything with me...Another squeak from you and I'll smash you up...I'll wreck the lot of you...I'll...You swines! You bums! I don't stand any cheek from anybody, d'you hear! I'll kill you. I'll make mincemeat out of you!...Swine! You bloody swine!...D'you want to start something with me? Do you?..."

Quim was yelling like a madman, but Gulamo couldn't have been frightened because he started to roll up his shirtsleeves.

It was nearly dark and Mangy-Dog was trembling against my leg, like I don't know what.

"Listen, man, let's leave this for another day," - Farouk looked at the gleam on the barrel of the single shot .22 - "Let's leave this for tomorrow or another day...." he might have stopped there, but as Quim had stopped yelling to hear what he said, he went on:

"....because it's nearly dark, and we might hurt somebody by mistake in the ark, with so many guns.""

I was the only one who answered: "I'm scared, Quim." It was hard for me to say that because no-one else was scared but it was better that way - "I'm scared, Quim."

Although it was nearly dark I saw my shoes shining on the places where Mangy-Dog was licking them. Even with the grass and everything. Quim and the rest of the gang laughed like anything, and Gulamo rolled on the grass he laughed so much, because I was scared.

"That's a good one, gang," said Quim, with his mouth wide open and tears running down his cheeks from laughing so much because I was scared.

"That certainly is," said Gulamo, who couldn't even be seen because he was rolling on the grass. The others laughed a lot, too.

I must have been very ashamed of having said that, and I started to feel a tremendous weight again, inside me and in my throat. I didn't move so they wouldn't laugh at me any more, but my legs were trembling under me because of Mangy Dog trembling up against them.