For October 18
Plot:
It’s New Year’s Eve in India during the Raj. Strickland of the police; Fleete, newly arrived and unfamiliar with native customs; and the unnamed narrator are tying one on—especially Fleete. His family’s property is in the hinterlands, so he usually doesn’t come into town.
He ends up staggering home because his horse fled. Forget that stiff upper lip. Fleete is ‘faced to the point that Strickland and the narrator feel obligated to escort him home. They pass a temple where devotees are chanting a hymn to Hanuman, the monkey god. Before his companions can stop him, Fleete enters the temple and smashes his cigar ashes on the forehead of the red stone image of the god.
“Shee that?” Fleet asks the others. “Mark of the B-easht. Ishn’t it fine?”
The worshippers are shocked and angry. A figure, “white with leprosy,” hugs Fleete.
After that, the priests grow sober. One steps forward and tells Stickland in English, “Take your friend away. He has done with Hanuman, but Hanuman has not done with him.”
The Brits should realize something is really wrong when the horses in the stable panic at the same time Fleete stumbles in.
Thoughts:
The story is (surprise) imbued with colonialism and a cruelty that is hard to read. Fleete pays a price for his drunken desecration, but the narrator and Strickland pay a greater price to restore him—not because he’s a close friend, but because, by Jove, he’s an Englishman, and they can’t bear to see what he’s become. He keeps scaring the horses.
Strickland (the policeman) asks the narrator, “I’ve done enough to ensure my dismissal from the service, [um, to say the least] besides permanent quarters in a lunatic asylum. Do you believe we are awake?”
A twist at the end has everyone (except Fleete) wondering if they’re not a little nuts.
Nevertheless, this is an unpleasant tale about unpleasant people. I disliked it because of its violence, even if the details are more implied than described.
Bio: Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was an Indian-born British journalist, novelist, poet, and short-story writer. Among his best-known works are The Jungle Book, the poem “If,” and (sadly) “The White Man’s Burden.” He wrote some ghost and supernatural stories later in life, such as “The Phantom Coach.”
In 1907, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
The loss of his only son in WWI deeply affected him. In his poem “Epitaphs of War,” he wrote, “If any question why we died, Tell them, because our fathers lied.”
The text can be read here:
The story can be listened to here:(31:06)
Title: “The Mark of the Beast”
Author: Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
First published: The Pioneer, July 12 + 14, 1890
Length: short story
Reviews of Old and New Stories. Mostly Old 
That is a great review, honest and informative. I probably would feel the same way as you.
Thanks for your kind words once again, Thomas. I’m glad you enjoyed it.
The only thing I read by Kipling was “Rikki Tikki Tavi,” which I liked.
I’d completely forgotten about “Rikki Tikki Tavi.” I loved that.