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THE LIBRARY

OF

THE UNIVERSITY

OF CALIFORNIA

PRESENTED BY

PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND

MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID

Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2007 with funding from

IVIicrosoft Corporation

http://www.archive.org/details/daysnightsofshikOObailrich

DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

;-:iikiJi

■^^s

A SUCCESSFUL DAY
From a xvatcr-colour sketch by the A uthor

DAYS AND NIGHTS
OF SHIKAR

BY MRS. W. W. BAILLIE

WITH A FRONTISPIECE BY THE AUTHOR

LONDON: JOHN LANE THE BODLEY HEAD LTD.
NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY MCMXXl

Printtd in Great Britain by Richard Clay & Sons, Limited, Bungay, Suffolk^

SK<S35'
32

CONTENTS

PAGE

1. THE FIRST PANTHER ...... I

II. CHAMBA 14

III. A BELGAUM TIGER 43

IV. IN THE KANARA JUNGLES 60

V. BISON JUNGLES 7©

VI. IN THE HIMALAYAS 81

VII. BUNKER 97

VIII. SOME BEARS IN SATARA 107

IX. A CHAPTER OF NOTHINGS I20

X. A CENTRAL PROVINCE TIGER . . . .134

XI. SOME BEES 145

XII. WILD DOGS 158

XIII. A RICKETY HAMMOCK 176

XIV. KURUKWAHI 201

XV. FAILURES 221

GLOSSARY . . . . . . . , 240

DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

THE FIRST PANTHER

FOR the first few years that my husband and I
were in India I had most extraordinary bad
luck in every way in shooting. I sat up night
after night over kills to try and get a leopard. I
never saw or heard one. I went out with parties
tiger-beating, under really favourable circumstances,
the beat sometimes arranged by an Indian prince,
sometimes by a sahib, and I was generally given the
most likely place. But though I heard an occasional
bang to right or left, nothing ever came my way. I
was beginning to grow rather despondent about it.
There were several thieving panthers at Mount
Abu. At that time we were taking care of a little
brown spaniel, Flirt, for a friend. One night when
we were at dinner she ran round to the back of our
quarters and stood in the veranda where the light
from the cookhouse fell on her. Servants were
going backwards and forwards with dinner and the
butler was bringing something from the cookhouse
when he saw a panther spring into the veranda,
snap up poor little Flirt and go off with her. I tied
up a goat outside and sat hidden in the veranda
night after night, as long as the moon endured;
but the panther was too wary for me.

2 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

Some weeks afterwards, when we were packing
up to leave the hill, a friend put us up for the night.
My husband and I chained up our dog. Banjo, a fat,
smiUng thing who called himself a terrier, to the
heavy zinc tub in the bathroom and closed the out-
side door. In the morning he was gone. We found
the chain broken and the door ajar. The panther
must have pushed his way in. As we were leaving
for Deesa that day, we could not try for our revenge.
But a friend next door tied up a goat that evening
and went out to dine. When he returned late at
night, the goat had just been killed, and he saw the
panther glide away. He sat up for a few minutes
watching, from his window, when back came the
animal for his feed, and we were dehghted to hear
afterwards that he was slain.

I wasted many more good nights, that I might
have spent better in sleep, in vain attempts. I did
manage to shoot one tiger in a beat. He came slowly,
creeping on, dragging himself along the ground
and trying to look as if he were not there. I was
up in a machan and, as I put up my rifle and shifted
my position, a branch of the tree caught my big pith
helmet and knocked it off my head. It went
rattUng down with a clatter among the dry leaves.
The tiger stopped and looked and then glanced up
and saw me. His stopping gave me a good chance
of a shot. He rolled over, got up, and only went a
few yards further, when he died. I was with my
brother, Herbert, and he had very nobly, I think,
given me the shot.

This was very nice, but I did not feel the joy of

THE FIRST PANTHER 3

triumph that the first panther gave me when I
began to go out altogether on my own account.
And another thing was, I dare say, that he took so
much getting.

We were stationed in a much cultivated part of
the Deccan, with no jungle anywhere round worth
speaking of. A poor place for big or small game.

A village man, who called himself a shikari, came
in one day in May with the news that a panther had
been doing much damage among the villagers* flocks,
and would I go out and shoot him. There had been a
goat killed that morning, and I must go out at once.
I asked him where the place was and how far away,

'' Near," he said.

** Three miles, six miles? "

It was farther than that. I brought the map and
looked it up, and suggested thirty miles. (It was
nearer forty I found afterwards.) He thought it
might be, but it was still '' near.''

** You must have done very quick time to come
in thirty miles by midday, after finding the dead
goat.''

He had to admit the goat was killed the day
before, but was very insistent about the necessity
of coming out soon ; so I settled to go, told him to
go back again and make arrangements, ordered a
cart to send out the small tent and a servant, and
went out myself in a hired tonga with two little
ponies.

It was in the middle of the hot weather and we
did not travel very fast. After about thirty miles
the tonga man said that he had orders to turn off

4 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

the road at that point. So we drove on some distance
over bare fields. Then he pulled up and said, as
well as I could understand, that he had lost his way
and could go no farther. He talked Marathi, and
I knew only a word or two of that language, but I
made him understand that he was to go to the
shikari's village.

There was no village to be seen and he did not know
even in which direction it was : besides, the ponies
had done enough.

By this time the sun had set, out got the driver,
unharnessed his ponies and said he was going to
find them water. Of course they must have a drink
after that long hot march, so I told him to go, thinking
he and his ponies would be back soon. But he never
did come back, that is, not until the next morning.

I sat and waited for some time, then darkness
came on, and beautiful stars shone out, but there
was no moon.

I ate some sandwiches and drank some claret,
which was very soothing ! and when that was over,
I thought it seemed a pity my night's rest should be
spoiled by any tonga wala, so took the cushions
out of the cart, put my guns under my head so that
they should not be stolen, and soon was fast asleep.

In the middle of the night I was awakened by
a bright fight shining in my eyes, and three men were
standing round me with a lantern. It was the patel
of the village for which I was bound, and his servants.
He said he had heard that I was there and came to
see that I was all right, as there was a party of dacoits
on the other side of some small hills near, and I had

THE FIRST PANTHER 5

much better come back with him to the village, where
I could have a charpoy to sleep on.

I thanked him for coming, and said I was very
comfortable where I was, and would come in the
morning.

He squatted down on his heels and began to talk :

*' I have not seen many white sahibs, but I knew
one very well, sahib.*' As a rule, I found the Indians
in the country parts do not call a woman " mem-
sahib," as our servants always do. '* He was a
missionary and was a very good man. He used to
give us medicine, or dress our wounds at any time,
day or night. Whenever any one went to him for
help he was always ready and kind and in a good
temper. And we talked among ourselves and said,
' If this is the Christian religion, then it is a good and
great religion, better than ours.* And we thought
and wondered about it, whether we should join him.

** Then he had to go away and another sahib
came. He was very different. He often lost his
temper and got very angry. He was a gussa wala.
Then we said, ' No, this is no religion for us, no
better than ours.' "

It was very amusing to hear his ideas on the sub-
ject. He went on and told me a good deal about his
religion which was very interesting. They had a
holy man of their own a long time ago. He was so
good that when he died both Mussulmans and
Hindus built a temple to him on a hill, and both
worshipped there, and did so still.

I got rather sleepy at last, and said we would
finish our talk next day, so he went away leaving

6 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

two of his men to keep watch over me. Next morn-
ing the patel, pony man and shikari came early and
I drove to the village, where my servant had already
arrived.

The shikari was disappointed that I had been too
late to sit up over the goat and so missed a good
chance. However, I sat and watched until dark
that evening. Nothing happened and I began to
think there was no panther there and that I had been
" had,'' just to bring a little baksheesh to the village.
I drove home, but, before starting, the shikari said
he should not give up the hope of killing the panther
and would come and tell me when he saw his tracks
again.

About a week after this he came. Another goat
had been killed. Would I come out? I thought
not. He begged me to come as the panther was
causing them so much loss among their flocks.

I thought I had been rather a fool to go on the
previous occasion, as I was told in the Station by
those who knew that it was most unlikely I should
find any panther in this district. I was lazy, and
it was grilling out in camp. So I hedged, and said,
"Go to every sahib in the Regiment and Indian
Regiment, and if no one will go, I will.'' Two days
afterwards he came back. '' Some sahibs won't go;
some sahibs can't get leave; and mem-sahib said
she would go if no sahib would come."

I did not start in quite such a hurry this time, but
sent the servants and kit and a horse on over night.
Then I drove out in the early morning, found the
horse waiting half-way and cantered on. The tent

THE FIRST PANTHER 7

was pitched in a grove of mango trees; it was a
beautiful camp with lovely shade not far from the
village.

Bumps and Bristler, the spaniel and terrier, had
been brought with the cart, and after the sun had
risen had been allowed to run alongside. I was
playing with them and was rubbing Bumps down the
back, when he wrenched himself free and screamed
with pain. I looked, and could see nothing to
account for it, so asked the boy what was the matter.
He said that when the spaniel was running with the
cart, the sun was very hot and that the dog dropped
down unconscious as if he had had a fit. He was
put back in the cart and gradually recovered.
Afterwards, a long deep blister appeared down the
length of his back, and all the hair came off, leaving
a scar for Ufe. The veterinary surgeon told me it
was a case of sunstroke and he thought that the dog
would certainly have died, had it not been for the
healing relief of the blister.

At night both dogs seemed uneasy. The horse
was stamping, and I woke up hearing the servants
talking. They said there were some terrible animals
crawling all over their legs and biting them, and that
no one could sleep. I, being off the ground, in my
camp-bed, was free. There was no help for it until
morning, except that the dogs were called on to
the tent carpet, where they seemed fairly content ;
but the servants and horse suffered badly.

When dawn came, we searched about to find out
what these insects were. We had not far to look.
The ground was simply alive with them — things

8 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

that looked like wood-lice, almost covering the ground
under the mango trees. Beyond in the open there
were none. I have never seen or heard of the
ground wood-lice anywhere else.

The friendly patel was called and I told him it
was impossible to stay in this spot; we must have
shade, and the only shade to be had was in this
mango tope. The servants could not bear themselves ;
the horse was stamp, stamping all night long, and
sleep was impossible.

He thought for a time, and then said :

'' Will the sahib come and live in the temple ? "

'* May I live in the temple? ''

He thought I might, but the several heads of the
Hindus and Mohammedans would have to be con-
sulted ; he was one among them and would give his
sanction. There was a hasty conclave and there
were one or two small points to which I was asked
to agree, and then, in a few minutes, the whole camp
was shifting up to the temple.

The temple was a big building with enormously
thick walls, standing on a hill with a long flight of
steps to climb up to it — easy steps, but many of them.
Shelters were made for the horse and servants below,
close to the village. My bedroom had open arch-
ways and carved ornamental window frames; and
the dining-room was anywhere in the spacious, open,
centre court where the shade happened to fall.

And so it was that ground wood-lice obtained
lodgings for me, and the dogs too, in a combined
Hindu-Mussulman temple !

When all things were settled, we turned our

THE FIRST PANTHER 9

attention to the panther and I sat up till dark over
a goat. He came after I had left, and killed. We
had a beat next day and he was seen for a second
in some prickly pear and then disappeared into a
cave.

The same thing happened again on the following
day. The beaters were very bad, they huddled
all together in a pack so that the panther could go
where he liked. I called them up and gave them a
short harangue.

'' Those who are afraid can go, and need not come
again as long as I stay here. Those who want to
stay must obey orders and beat as I tell them. They
will receive baksheesh if they beat the panther to
me."

All the Marathi people melted away, and there
was only left one family, a big one, of people belong-
ing to the Bhil tribe, whom I had noticed before as
being very staunch. There was a very old man who
looked the great-grandfather of the family, very
thin, almost a skeleton, aged, I should think, about
eighty ; some men, women and children of all ages,
and one woman with a small baby carried on her
hip. They were ready for anything, and determined
at once to try and drive the panther out of his cave.
It took a long time to make a start and I found it
fearfully hot standing out on burning rocks with
absolutely no shade. I tried sitting down, but
jumped up again very quickly, the ground being
like hot bricks. The shikari tied an old bit of cloth
he was wearing on to a cactus bush to give me
shelter from the sun, and I squatted down under it

10 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

and poured water from my drinking bottle over my
head and down my back ; but it was grilling all the
same.

The Bhils started off from different points towards
the cave, creeping through cactus and prickly pear
scrub where they could. The panther was lying
outside the cave and, from my point of vantage on
the opposite side of a wide deep ravine, I saw him
for the first time, creeping along, but only for a second,
and then he disappeared under bushes making for
his cave. A Bhil woman went up a tangled narrow
path, the only one that led to the mouth of the cave.
She took with her a bundle of dry grass which she
placed inside the mouth of the cave and then set
fire to it in order to smoke the panther out. I did
not at first realize what she was doing, but when I
understood, I shouted to her to come back from her
dangerous position; she would not stir, however,
until she had got the grass well alight. She was
enveloped in smoke which blew the wrong way,
towards us, so did not do much good, but not till
then did she come away.

The panther may have had another outlet, or
he may not have Uked the smoke, for next morning
the Bhils discovered, by some tracks, that he had
gone off to another nullah in the bare hill where
there was no place for him to hide. They said that
this time we should surely get him. I was posted
on a small stone a foot or two high (for safety !)
on the side of the hiU. The Bhil family climbed
to the top, and then beat the nullah down towards
me. The panther was at home. He tried to cHmb

THE FIRST PANTHER ii

the hill, so they told me afterwards, and get away
over the top, but was driven back by shouts and
showers of stones.

When I first saw him, he was some distance below
me, galloping round a slope, off towards his cave
again. I waited for a space clear from undulating
ground and rocks and took my shot. He spoke,
but galloped on, untouched as I thought. I was
on the point of turning round on the shikari and
telling him that his handohast was rotten, for how
could I hit a thing travelling at that pace so far away ?
Then it struck me that I was still more rotten not
to fire again. During this small space of time the
panther had done another twenty yards or so. I
raised my rifle, but before I could fire again over he
went, head over heels, rolling down the hill, stone
dead.

I was never, I think, so pleased at anything before.
And what a fluke ! We measured and found that
he was over 120 yards away, and I might have
shot another forty times and never have hit him
once.

The shikari and Bhils salaamed to the ground and
laid their heads on my feet. Then, as I tried to walk
down, they lifted and moved my feet for me, which
made progression rather difficult. Several of them
ran on ahead up to the panther, not staying to throw
stones at him from a distance to make sure that he
was really dead. I told them how well they had
beaten — so they had — and what a good bandohast
it was to have managed to beat an animal over that
difficult lie of country anywhere near me. We

12 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

measured him — 7 ft. 2 in. — and they carried him
back to the village to be skinned.

That evening we had a village concert in the court-
yard of the temple. The schoolmaster asked if the
villagers might come up to hear my music ! I had
a banjo which always comes out camping with me, as
often after dinner the flies and insects are so trouble-
some, swarming round a light, that one has perforce
to sit in darkness. Then I strum on in the dark
till bedtime.

Of course I said that the schoolmaster and the
villagers could come up, and quite a little gathering
of men and children assembled; the children stood
in the archway. The men did not think much of
my performances, however, and soon suggested that
they should give me some of their own music. The
schoolmaster said he would sing an English song.
I believe he did not know any English at all excepting
the words of his song, which were as follows :

'* God made the sun that shines so bright ;
God made the moon that shines at night ;
God made the stars to give us light "

I forget the last line : but he sang sufficiently
in tune for me to gather that he started on the top
key-note and descended the scale to the octave below,
which was repeated for each line. He burst into
loud fits of laughing at the end of each line, and I
joined in. I encored him and we had it several
times over. He was the primo donno, as it were,
the other performers not doing great things.

He asked as a favour if I would spare him a bottle

THE FIRST PANTHER 13

of soda-water, so some was ordered and was brought
in a glass. '' No, not like that,'' he said. '' I want
to take it home.*' So it was poured into a black
bottle, and next day he told me that he had drunk
ten drops and had given two to his small daughter
and that they both felt much better. He said that
he intended to continue this treatment daily !

II

CHAMBA

MY husband had three months leave due to him,
and we decided to spend the time in Chamba,
in the Himalayas, provided we could get
permission from the Raja. He kindly gave us leave
and his brother lent us a pony and a dandi, to help
us along to Kukti, where he advised us to go.

At first all went well, for the road was good. It
ran alongside the Ravi river, between very steep
hills, and we had a couple of days marching in ease
and comfort. Then it grew worse, and was washed
away in places. At last we came to a bridge totally
wrecked by a torrent, and after that there was no
road at all. The pony could go no farther, and the
dandi-men could go only with difficulty, even with
the dandi relieved of my weight.

The pony was sent back and we began to cUmb
fearfuUy stiff hills, or rather, mountains and preci-
pices : up one, down another. There was hardly a
flat spot on which to set one's foot for miles, and the
Bunker dog, our terrier, had often to be carried.
At last, very late in the day, we reached a village
called Chitrari, and the Chitrari-ites advised us to
pitch our tents in a cow-yard as it was the only level
place — about 9 ft. by 3 ft. — on the hill ! It did

14

CHAMBA 15

not strike us as being very clean or sweet, and we
walked on a few steps through a gateway which led
into a temple. We were told that we might pitch
a tent in the courtyard; there was only room for
one, and it was put up close by a large image of
Devi. He was a handsome god, made in brass, and
he wore a red petticoat. At sundown the villagers
saluted him with lights and bells and wild blasts
from a big horn. The worshippers arrived before the
musical sounds began, and did not need to be called
by the sometimes pitiable ding-dak of two cracked
bells, such as one often hears in England — which
makes one pause and think. Theatres or the Sunday
Queen's Hall Concert do not need beUs to call their
congregations.

We asked the lamhardar, the village squire, how
far it was to our next camping ground, and if it was
a bad road. He said it was near and the road fairly
level. It was near — about a mile as the crow flies —
and level for about ten or twelve yards. Then down
we went, twisting and turning about, another almost
perpendicular hill, and we struggled along from seven
o'clock until four. When, dead beat, we reached
our destination and turned round, there was the
village of Chitrari on the opposite mountain, looking
so close that we might almost have chucked a stone
on it.

On our arrival it began to rain, and Will, my
husband, and I took refuge in a gentleman's veranda
and sat on a muck-heap — I can call it nothing else —
in which Bunker at once rolled.

The kit came in very late, and no wonder, but our

i6 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

marvellous cook, wet through, arrived smiling and
at once began his preparations for dinner. Rum
John — his name is Ramzan Khan, but he says that
sahibs always call him Rum John — is really a remark-
able man : however long or trying the march, or
whatever the weather, he came in smiling, set to,
did everybody's work and got work out of the coolies
as well. He was quite a lesson to us as we groused
at the difficulties of the road : and we had been
advised to go to Chamba, '' as you can get some
shooting and also have a perfect loaf if you want."
But, as Will remarked, " Half a loaf is better than
no bread."

Dinner came, and our best chair — which had a
cushion on it too — went down with a crash, and Will
sat on the floor. He had to sit on his photograph
camera after that. Then we found that the coohe
who carried my bed had broken one end off it : it
was not very safe, but carried me that night.
Another march and yet another and at last we
reached our permanent camp, Kukti. We calcu-
lated roughly that if we had never unclimbed all
the hills that we had climbed, we should then have
been at a height of 340,000 feet. But, as a matter
of fact, the pocket barometer only registered 7850
feet.

It began to snow, but Rum John still smiled and
showed his face at the tent door. His face had been
flattened and his nose broken by a kick from a horse
when he was a syce — he had been everything, I
think. He came to say that he had bought a sheep,
but that he could not buy any fowls now, as the

CHAMBA 17

people in the village were Hindus and it was against
their principles to keep fowls. He mentioned also
that he was unable to get eggs ! And were we ready
for dinner ? We were.

We had heard something frizzling and sputtering
on the fire, and judged it to be mutton ; but, when
dinner came, it turned out to be a fowl that we had
brought along with us. We had noticed it the day
before. It was a black fowl with pink eyes and red
about the gills, and we thought it must be an oldish
and knowing bird, as it waited until no one was
looking, and then started off and dashed down the
hill. Some one noticed it, however, as it sped away,
and the cook and some coolies dashed off in pursuit
and captured it, after a stern chase, some few hundred
feet down. We did not realize how very old he was
until we began to eat him !

At Kukti we found our two shikaris, Fuffia and
Punchi, waiting for us, and we also found some lovely
violets and asked the lamhardar to send a boy to
pick a few for us. He said that if we could wait
until the next morning, he would send three or four
men out for the day to gather some, so great was his
desire to please the sahibs.

After reaching our shooting ground, we spent eight
or ten days making long tramps over the hills after
black and red bears and kart, as the wild goat is
called in Chamba. We saw several at a long distance
but never anything within range.

Rum John, ever mindful of our comfort, came to
us with the suggestion that we should tell the shikaris
whether we wanted skins or horns, give them the

i8 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

guns and send them out at 3.0 a.m. Then we could
get up and have our breakfast comfortably and
stroll out to meet them about midday and see what
they had shot ! This was quite a new idea and one
that had never occurred to us, and we asked him if
he had just thought of this scheme. But he said
quite simply, *' No, some sahibs do it.'*

We had a good deal of bad weather, rain, snow and
mist at first, and then, at last, came a beautiful fine
morning and we were up before dawn. We always
went shooting in different directions, and on this
occasion Will went off with Punchi ibex-wards, and
Fufha took me to a place where he said that kart
were always to be found.

We climbed for some hours, and then I sat down
for a rest and ate some snow while Fuffia and his
coolie went on to look over one or two spurs. I had
never seen a kart, and as I sat there I noticed an
animal, that I can best describe by saying that it
had golden hair and four woolly legs, run along the
hillside. I saw the coolie far away running in my
direction, so I started to meet him. Fuffia had told
him to say I must come at once, and quickly, as there
were forty kart in sight.

I joined Fufha, and we crept along very cautiously
on tiptoe, peeping over rocks and round corners. I
expected to see something a mile away, as I knew
Fuffia's methods, but he was trembling with excite-
ment and his voice was shaking. He pointed sud-
denly and pulled up. There were a dozen or more
kart feeding about four hundred yards below us on
a grass slope.

CHAMBA ig

We were standing on a very steep hillside, where
some young pine trees were growing, and it was
covered with long, extraordinarily slippery grass.
It was a fine place for a stalk, as all we had to do
was simply to sit down and slither. And slither we
did, down that grass, at about twenty miles an hour,
hidden by the trees, and stopping ourselves when we
could by catching hold of branches. All the same
we did it fairly quietly.

When we were about a hundred yards from the
flock, we pulled up, though with difficulty, and Fuffia
gave me the rifle. He pointed out the biggest male,
and as there was no place to stand level, he held my
leg so that I should not slip. I felt him still shaking
with excitement, so, to try and get steadier, I rested
the rifle against a tree, had a nice broadside shot —
and missed. I thought at first that the kart was
hit, as he half sat down (I had grazed his back), but
he gave me time for a second shot, gave a jump,
then fell and rolled several hundred feet down the
hill. The other kart began to move off and I missed
one, but managed to hit another who reared up and
fell head over heels backwards, bumping and rolling
over rocks, until he was brought up in a nullah, five
hundred feet below.

We scrambled and slithered down to the nullah,
and aU the way Fuffia was salaaming, bowing his
head till it touched the ground and saying a good deal
about Kismet. He had that morning exchanged the
coolie that he took with him previously for another,
and he said the reason was, *' It may be ruled by
Kismet that we shall have no luck with Baja."

20 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

The first kart that I had hit had very good horns,
fourteen inches, and he was a big, heavy animal,
though the horns of the kart look rather poor for the
size of their bodies : the other one was a small
animal with horns of about ten inches. The skinning
and cutting up occupied several hours. Fuffia was
obliged to prop up the kart with stones, or they would
have rolled to the bottom of the hill, about another
thousand feet down. I went to windward and tried
to sit on a bank of violets, but it was too steep to sit
anywhere with comfort.

Fuffia's skinning knife was a piece of blunt iron,
and I had not brought one, so the job would have
taken still longer if I had not remembered my little
picnic set. The knife was a sharp one and the men
were very glad of it, but they said they had no use
for the fork and spoon, so I ate my bit of mutton
with them.

When the skinning was over and the carving up
began, there seemed to be innumerable little tit-
bits inside, great treasures of which I had no idea.
These were put aside and afterwards carefully packed
round the cooHe's waist and tied by his rope, a thing
always worn by coolies in readiness for carrying their
loads.

By this time the men were rather thirsty, so a few
yards of intestines were cut off, slightly cleaned out
and given to the cooHe, who was sent off a long way
down the hill to find water and bring it back as
soon as possible. A knot was tied at one end of this
primitive water vessel, the other end was used for
drinking, and it held a fair quantity. I was offered

CHAMBA 21

first drink, but thought I would be satisfied with my
little sketching water-bottle.

Fuffia managed to joint the animal very well
with the small knife, and all the meat, except the
titbits and the hind legs, was hidden under stones.
The skins and horns, with the hind legs, we took
along with us, and they were a pretty heavy load
for the coolie, but, with the expectation of the coming
feast, he did not seem to mind the weight.

We looked out for red bear on the homeward road,
but did not see any.

After dinner we celebrated first blood of the expedi-
tion by drinking ginger brandy. This was kept for
great occasions, as we had decided that fresh
bubbling spring water was quite good enough for us
at ordinary times.

More rain and snow fell, but the forest officer, who
was travelling our way and came in and dined one
evening, cheered us up by saying that it didn't
always rain in these parts. Another fine day came
at last. I went out and sketched while the shikaris
looked about for game. The flies were very trouble-
some, and, as a very small boy was standing watching
me, I employed him to wave a leafy twig over my
head to keep them off. He was at first more inter-
ested in keeping them off my paint-box than off me,
poking at them with a stick. But when he learnt
that he might really flick hard on flies that settled
on my face, he began to enjoy himself and my nose
suffered more than the flies.

Will went out and saw a brown bear on some rocks
above him. He watched the animal sauntering along

22 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

until it was hidden behind them. Then he and
Punchi waited and watched until the bear, out of
pure curiosity, stood up on his hind legs and peeped
over a rock at them. Will could just see his head
and that was all ; but he got a bullet into that, and
there was again cause for ginger brandy.

Some weeks of our leave passed during which we
had bad weather and no luck. Several times we saw
bear, and once ibex, in the far distance, and each of
us fired a shot or two with no result. A bear was
badly wounded, but got away in the forest and could
not be found. Rum John was very sympathetic, and
one day, when we were talking matters over with
him, he said :

'' If the sahib will let me come out with him, he
will certainly shoot something : good luck comes
with me."

The sahib said doubtfully :

" But shall I get my dinner all the same when I
get back?"

Ramzan Khan smiled rather scornfully at the
sahib's extraordinary want of knowledge of his
character.

'' I am not an idle man."

Nor was he.

They started off together and Will brought home
rather a fine bear.

Another day, when we were going out together to
look for ibex. Rum John asked if he might come too.
So, armed with his black umbrella, water-bottle and
bag, that went with him everywhere, he started with
us.

CHAMBA 23

After a long tramp we separated. Will made his
way to the top of a snowy nullah, and I waited while
the men went on a short distance to look about and
report. There had been much miserable snowy
and dull weather, but on this particular day there
was a clear blue sky, and it was deUghtful to sit
down in the sun to eat my breakfast. Even the
butter on the hot, sunny plate ran about for joy.
Rum John noticed this, and fixed up his black
umbrella over me on a rock and brought me some icy
cold spring water, and a bunch of rhododendrons
and a green lily, which he laid down beside me and
then went off to eat his midday meal.

Quite early in the afternoon the coolie came to
say there was a bear with two cubs on the opposite
slope. I went with him and we found Fuffia watch-
ing. The bear was a long way above us with her
cubs, that were well-grown ones and quite able to do
without their mother.

It was a very long cUmb up the mountain, but
excellent ground for a stalk, a ridge of ground all the
way hiding us completely from the bear. Fufha was
a terrible man to go with on a stalk; he always
raced on ahead and never looked round to see if
one was following. All he seemed to want was to
get close to the animal himself, though I am sure that
he would never have dared to go close enough to a
bear to put salt on its tail. I had often told him that
there was no sense in this, but that never stopped
him from doing the same thing again. This time
he was off as usual. He had disturbed several bears
before in this fashion, so I sat down and made the

24 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

coolie wait too until Fuffia did look round. After
watching him climb several hundred feet more, he
chanced to turn — of course we dare not try to attract
his attention by any sound — and then I signalled to
him to come back. I made him hold one end of my
khud stick, which answered two purposes, it kept him
within range and helped to give me a pull up the
mountain. We climbed at a good pace all the same,
and when we reached what Fufha supposed was the
bear's level we crept on and looked over the ridge.
The bear was feeding quietly about fifty yards away
with the cubs playing round her.

I had panted along behind Fufiia all the way up,
was very much out of breath, and simply had to
wait to recover it. He, all excitability as usual,
kept up a running fire of rather audible whispers :

'* Now shoot ; now wait ; now he is coming nearer ;
don't shoot; now he is moving; shoot, shoot quickly;
now he is behind a rock; don't shoot," and so on,
which was very distracting and a thing of which he
never could be cured. It was in his nature, part
of him.

While I was waiting, the bears all disappeared
behind some rocks, the old one still quietly feeding.
I had found my breath again by the time she reap-
peared from the shelter of stones and turned with
her head straight towards me. I hit her in the neck
and sent her over, rolling down. She got up and I
shot her in the shoulder, which knocked her down
again. She tried to get up and come for us, which
made Fuffia run, but she was too badly hit to come
more than a few yards. The young ones ran round

CHAMBA 25

her, growled for a short time and then raced off into
the rhododendron bushes. I went up close to finish
her off, and just Before she died, she turned her head
and looked round for her cubs, her face puckered
up and her mouth twitching in an absolutely human
way, as if she was just going to cry; I have never
seen anything so sad and pitiful. I can see it now,
and I never shall forget it ; mai I did feel a brute.
I settled to leave a mother with cubs alone in future :
when I have shot one since, it was unknowingly.

I have on one other occasion seen an animal cry,
and then it was not from sorrow or despair.

We had left two terriers. Bunker and Blaze, in the
kind care of friends while we were in England on
leave. Poor Bunker died, but Blaze survived and
was brought along to meet us, when we got back,
by our returning cook. She did not remember me
at once, but kept close to Jeronimo, and I did not
speak to or take any notice of her, just to see how soon
she would know me. At last I spoke and she looked
at me wistfully with shining eyes. I picked her up
and her little body began to heave with long sobs,
and tears rained down her face : she was so happy.

This little dog was with us at Mahableshwar,
where there are generally prowling panthers to be
found. It is a good place for them, as there is so
much jungle on the hill and round the bungalows.
We knew that there was a thieving panther going the
rounds of all the houses near and we were very
careful about shutting up the dogs at night.

Blaze was very much excited one evening as she
had nearly caught a rat in the veranda, and she kept

26 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

on hunting about after it until bedtime. Eventually,
she came into my room with the others and settled
down into her basket — the sort of round open basket
that cooks always use to take to the bazaar — and
went to sleep. The door was nearly shut and there
was a lamp, half turned down, in the room. I woke
to see Blaze, with her eyes fixed on mine, looking
over the edge of her basket. Of course the dogs
often woke when I did and looked up with half an
eye for a second ; but this time Blaze was wide awake,
and with her eyes steadily fixed on mine, she looked
and looked. I rolled over to try and sleep, but was
kept awake some time, as I could not help turning
to look at her, and her eyes were always on me.
Something seemed to be wrong, so I got up and looked
to see what it was, but could find nothing. Then I
spoke to her, and she understood that it was '' Good-
night '' ; but she did not seem to be satisfied, and her
eyes were still fixed anxiously on me when I went
to sleep.

I never saw her again. In the morning there was
no trace of her. I do not know whether she went
out after the rat again and was snapped up by the
hill leopard, or if the creature pushed his way through
the front veranda door and quietly took her off, or
whether he got her at all, and it was most improb-
able that she should be stolen up there. We searched
everywhere outside for her collar and jhul — rugs the
dogs wear on cold nights — but never found a trace
of them nor of her, and the ground was too hard
and rocky outside the bungalow to be able to see
any panther footmarks.

CHAMBA 27

Several years afterwards I was staying in the same
house as a lady who was, I think, a spirit medium,
and on one occasion she happened to be writing
automatically. I might mention that she had never
been in India. I said suddenly, apropos of nothing :

" What happened to Blaze ? '*

Her hand tore along the paper and wrote : '' Taken
away by a panther.'' She lifted her hand from the
paper rather angrily, and said :

'* Look here ! if you are going to write such stuff
as this, I won't go on any more. Write sense or not
at all."

" Oh, do go on just for a minute and see what is
written," I said.

Rather unwillingly, she put her hand down again,
and I asked where Blaze was taken, in my own mind
picturing the front veranda by the steps.

The pencil scribbled the answer : '' From the back
of the bungalow, close to the window where the
padre always sits."

There was a tiny room at the back that my husband
used for his office and he always sat there.

Then I asked the writer :

'' What do you think Blaze is ? "

'* Oh, I don't know; I thought it was a racehorse,
if I did think at all."

As well as I remember there was a racehorse called
St. Blaise who won the Derby, so I suppose she was
thinking of that.

To go back to the bear after this long digression.
In a very short time Fuffia and the coolie reappeared
from I don't know where. Then I heard some one

28 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

panting up the hill, and there was Rum John with
his black umbrella, looking very warm, but smiling
as usual. He made salaam and said, by God's great
goodness we had secured a bear.

'* Thanks to Devi, we have killed our bear,"
Fuffia said.

The cook said it was Kismet. Fuffia said that the
night before he had promised a sheep to Devi if he
gave us sport.

*' Perhaps God in his goodness will give us another
one, on the way home,'' said Rum John.

'* If Devi sees fit, we shall surely get one,'' retorted
Fuffia.

Of course the khansamah, Rum John, is a Moham-
medan and the shikari a Hindu, but on whatever
other points they might differ, they both talked
about Kismet.

Fuffia and the coolie could not skin or even touch
a bear on account of caste, so I thought that per-
haps the cook and I could give the carcase a start
and let it roll down the hill ; or we might send for
low caste men from the village. But the khansamah,
as usual, was prepared for any emergency ; he opened
his bag, took out a carving knife and set to work
skinning. In about an hour it was aU finished, and
we started back with the skin, which, in that con-
dition, the coolie was permitted to handle.

Devi did not see fit to give us another bear, and
it was a sad homecoming, as I found Will, sitting in
his tent door, with his foot up and Punchi and the
servant bathing it. He had sprained his ankle badly.
He and Punchi and Dass had gone to the top of the

CHAMBA 29

snowy nullah and had seen two lots of tringol, which
in Chamba language signifies ibex, and in starting
after one lot, Will had trodden on a loose stone that
rolled over with him. He walked a Uttle farther,
but soon found it impossible to get along, as his foot
was so painful. He was carried home, over very
difficult ground, terribly steep, with no path, on
the backs of Punchi and Dass by turns. It was a
wonder that they reached camp safely and before
dark.

Will's foot was very painful all night and he had
to stay in bed next day. Ramzan Khan was very
busy ; he borrowed some of our tools and soon came
in bringing a crutch he had made out of the broken
pole of the camp bed and a cross block of wood.
It was nearly six feet high, but he cut it down to a
more suitable length. Then he prepared what we
thought was soup, in a pot. It was made of salt,
opium and a small hot seed he called *' sapine.'' He
brought all these things with him from his own
country, in case of accidents, he said. The soup he
made was really a cure for sprained ankle. He
dipped woollen stockings into it and fomented the
ankle several times during the course of the day.
He called the mixture '' Brumtracy," said it was an
English word and wondered that we had never
heard it. We talked it over and asked him if it
could be '* fomentation.'' He thought it was !

After a few days the treatment was changed and
Rum John brought in a dish of chocolate-looking
stuff that smelt rather good. He used to make us
marvellous things to eat with wonderful names, and

30 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

he looked so pleased with this one that I said I would
taste it. He stopped me, saying it was a plaster
for the sahib's foot. So the sahib had to sit in a chair
with his foot in the sun and have the stuff laid on,
and then sit quiet until it dried on.

All these cures had such good effect that in about
a week's time Will had sufficiently recovered to be
able to walk about again, do a march and make a
very stupid joke about there being nothing Ramzan
Khan't do !

I had a long shot at a black bear late one evening
and he went roaring away into some jungle. The
men were sure that we should find him the next day,
as he seemed so badly hit. When we got back to
camp, Punshi, who is an artist at tableaux vivants,
acted, for the sahib's benefit, the events of the day —
how the mem-sahib sat, how the rifle went off, how
the bear jumped, what the bear said, and then
he pretended to plunge away into cover — all in
the most graphic manner; and he really roared
thrillingly.

We had had no luck with ibex, so I went out to
try for one, though we could not hear of any good
heads in these nullahs. I sat down for a rest after
some hours of stiff climb and Fuffia went off to one
of his look-out spots. I could see him far away very
busy, climbing from rock to rock. He whistled,
then signalled to me to come up while he came
clambering down.

There was a rugged hill running out in a point
separating two nullahs, and I worked my way to this
sort of bowsprit, where I met Fuffia, and he pointed

CHAMBA 31

out a herd of about a dozen ibex moving slowly uphill
towards us. We wanted to get to the spot where
the nullahs joined before the ibex could reach it,
as then, whichever way they turned, we might
have a chance at them.

We scrambled down queer places and my feet
hurried on much faster than the rest of me wanted
to go. I kept on tumbling, couldn't keep my feet a
minute, hung on to juniper trees to try and pull
myself up, at the same time racing after the flying
Fuffia, who, with the coolie, kept on tumbling down
too.

We tried to work to the end of the bowsprit, but
a precipice stopped us and we had to go some way
round. The wind was right, but no doubt our mad
career had disturbed the tringoL Two of the females
saw us and warned the rest, and they began to make
off, wending their way amongst rocks about 150 or
200 yards away from us. I fired at the biggest male
I could see, and missed. Another stood for a moment
and I hit him in the neck. I shot a second through
the heart, and they both tumbled and rolled and
bumped a long way down and landed close together.
They were small horns, and, if I had known more
about ibex then, I should never have fired at all.

It was a funny climb down. At every step we
started avalanches of stones, and, if one clung on
to one of these, it was almost sure to give way and
go clattering below. Both the ibex were, of course,
stone dead, but as Fuffia was cutting the head off
the biggest one, it gave a loud baa, which so startled
him and the coolie that they dropped it quickly

32 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

and jumped away. Clouds and mist soon rolled up,
and it was difficult to find our way back.

The shikaris now proposed that we should go up
to some very good kart ground, taking with us two
days' supplies and travelling very light; they said
that the place was very high up and difficult of
access, and that we must leave our tents behind.
We thought this a good scheme, but the weather was
so uncertain that we did not like the idea of going
tentless. They told us the road — there was no road,
only a sketchy path at times — was so bad that the
coolies could only carry half loads and that tents
were too heavy to take. Fortunately, however, we
insisted on taking our two sleeping tents with us,
and the cook's chuldaH, and they were divided up
into hght loads; but we took as few things as we
could possibly do with.

The shikaris knew of one spot where we might
find enough level ground to pitch the tents, so we
made a start on a nice fine day, leaving servants,
with most of our belongings, to march some miles
along by the river and wait for us to join them after
our shoot.

We reached our camp in time to settle ourselves
before night came on. It was a curious place to
choose for a camp. There was just space, and only
just space, enough for the tents on a bit of sloping
ground; behind and above us was a big high rock,
and in front and below was a precipice cut by a
waterfall — a sheer drop for hundreds of feet. There
were high cHffs on each side, and when we were
encamped we had to look about to make out how

CHAMBA 33

we ever got there. We saw a good many kart,
big and small, feeding on the slopes above the cliffs,
and we looked forward to the morrow.

But the morrow never came, that is, not the
morrow we wanted. After dinner it came on to
rain in torrents and it poured all night. It was
pouring in the morning when we got up and every-
where around us was enveloped in thick clouds,
and we could only see for about ten yards. The
rain continued all day. In the evening the clouds
broke for a few minutes and we could still see the
kart feeding; then gloom again.

It rained for 94 hours without a break. The
shikaris and coolies had a miserable time. They
tried to creep under the big rock where there was a
little shelter, but water was streaming down the
face of it and dripped on to them ; they were drenched
and cold and wretched. Will said that they might
sleep in the bathroom of his tent, but as streams of
water were rushing through our tents, besides a
continual dripping inside, they thought they were
better off where they were. Even Rum John looked
serious after the second day of it, when he told us
there was very little left to eat. He, too, was wet
through and the chuldari soaked and dripping, and
how he managed to make a bit of fire with wet sticks
and give us hot tea, and other things, we never
knew.

We called in the men next day and asked if we
should give up the expedition and move down, or
what was best to be done. They said it was impos-
sible to move ; the streams were swollen, the water-

34 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

fall a roaring torrent, and the track we should have
to follow impassable. They dared not venture on
it, especially with a load on their backs; and this,
although they had finished the last mouthful of food
they had brought with them. So we decided to wait.

The first night Rum John had given us roast leg
of ibex for dinner. Will thought it tasted something
like pheasant ; I thought it was like veal. The next
night we had r^chauff^ed leg; on the third, a hash
was made; and on the fourth, what little remains
there were went into a potato pie. The bit of soap
we had brought with us had melted away and the
cigarettes had run out. There was nothing for it
but starvation.

Next morning the cook and the shikaris settled
that, come what might, we must get out of our present
quarters, and they decided that we must leave the
tents standing and take only a little of our bedding,
and perhaps a toothbrush. When the poor, starved,
wet coolies heard this, they cheered up a little and
each offered to take some light thing. Rum John
packed up the most necessary of his cooking pots
and the men were wiUing to take his tiny tent, soaked
though it was.

The wooden hut belonging to the forest officer
was below us on the far side of the river, and we
intended to stay there for the night. We waited
until midday in hopes of finer weather, but the rain
was as heavy as ever ; so we made a start, walking
on a very slippery ledge, over long rank grass and
undergrowth, which made the falling soft and
pleasant; and we all slipped and fell many times.

CHAMBA 35

The falling was wet too, but, as we were soaked
through in the first five minutes, that made very
little difference. Crossing a stream, one of the coolies
fell with his load on the brink of a precipice, but
was just saved by the next man, who caught him and
pulled him up. He cut his foot badly.

After an hour or two of marching the mist cleared
away, the rain kept on, but it became '' beautifully
fine '' — for Chamba ! As we crossed over a spur of
hill, Fuffia dropped down on all fours and pointed,
and we looked, and saw a kart standing out on a rock,
perhaps eighty or a hundred yards away. Will, who
had his rifle, knocked him over. The shot startled
seven or eight others which seemed to have been
taking shelter under the rocks. We shot four more,
and they all fell about a thousand feet below. The rest
ran off, down the face of the cliff to all appearance.
It was marvellous to see the pace at which they got
along and the jumps they made, for it seemed to us
that there was no room for foothold anywhere.

None of the kart were good ones, but on this occa-
sion we were only shooting for the pot, and we were
glad of the chance of getting a good feed for the
men, after their hardships, and also for ourselves.
Next morning the coolies went out to look for the
kart and bring them in. They found four of them,
and of course there were broken horns and bones
among them after having fallen from such a height.

As we marched down, we saw a tremendous water-
fall which shot out from a cHff and fell across to the
opposite hill, near the bottom of it, splashing up from
the ground below and above the tops of the trees.

36 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

The flood was bringing over great rocks and trees
with it and there was a sort of boom, boom, like
the noise of big guns, going on all the time. The
water was very brown and dirty, but it was a grand
sight — and sound as well — and we stood and watched
it for a long time.

Arrived at the bottom of the mountain, we made
for the hut, but we found the river a rushing torrent
and the bridge swept away ; so the hut was no good
to us under those circumstances. We camped a
short distance away on grass, and Rum John had
the greatest difficulty in starting a camp fire with
wet sticks, wet matches, wet everything. He got a
fine one going at last, and we took off our clothes, one
garment at a time, to try and get them dry. The
rain stopped at six o'clock that evening and we had a
curious meal, called dinner, about ten.

The next morning the sun really did come out once
more, and we sat in it and tried to dry our things.
Some of the men went off to bring in the tents and
others the kart. The kart expedition was the most
fancied; but every one had a great feast that night.

Word was now brought in that it was no use wait-
ing for the servants with the kit that we had left
behind, as all the bridges for miles had been washed
away and they could not get to us. We marched
farther down stream and could see them quite close
on the opposite bank, though that was not much
satisfaction to any of us. I shot two gurral on the
way. One we retrieved ; the other went roll, bump,
tumble, down the hill, until it bounded over into the
rushing Ravi river.

CHAMBA 37

The next day's march was the worst we had ever
done. We had ordered cooUes to come : none
arrived, so Will went on ahead, with Punchi, to
Chobia, to send them back at once. About four
o'clock in the afternoon an old man and two small
boys appeared. The old man said that the coolies
had all been sent off early, but had run away and
hidden in the hills, as they would not face that
road with loads.

Rum John waited to look after the loads and I
went on. The road was a little narrow path at such
an angle that one had to walk on the edge of one's
foot all the way. There were also overhanging rocks
to climb round, and the old man held my foot in
cracks and safe places for fear I should tumble off,
and where he himself found a footing, I don't know
We reached Chobia at last and found Will, who said
that he had got there somehow I

The nice old man who had brought me safely to
Chobia made us welcome to his cowshed (he would
have given us his whole house if we had wanted it),
lit a large fire in the yard, made us some black flour
chapatties, and gave us some really nice milk. Then
Rum John came in with the two small boys and the
beds and a little bedding, which were put under the
eaves of the cowshed, and we went to bed dinnerless.

We both spent a horrible night, as we were bitten
to death by a sort of whity transparent midge that
flew about and hovered like a butterfly. They were
worse than mosquitoes, as they not only bit our hands
and faces, but got down inside the sheets and bit us
all over. They were poisonous little things — a sort

38 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

of sandfly, I suppose — they bit me on the eyelids,
and in the morning they were so swollen that I could
not see. There was also one flea. Moreover, in the
middle of the night it rained heavily and dripped
down from the eaves, so that we had to get up
frequently and shake the water off the top rugs before
it had time to soak through. It was not a very
restful night, but still we could lie and think of our
mosquito curtains so near — only on the other side
of the Ravi.

At last, after some days' waiting, our kit was
brought in, and the khidmatgar, with the heavier
loads, managed to find a bridge and join us. He
brought some flour too, and other food, also eight
large yellow puff-balls wrapped in a dirty duster.
He seemed so proud of them we thought it might
hurt his f eeUngs if we did not eat them ; so we tried
them and really found them quite good.

We had now to begin our marches back to Chamba,
as leave was drawing to a close. We stayed for a
few days at a place called Bassu. The day we
arrived there it was raining hard and the chief man
of the place asked us to use part of his house to put
up in — a big wooden building with a large courtyard
in the middle. It had an upper storey, and there my
tent was pitched, in a large room open to the air
on two sides : and Will's was pitched outside. It
seemed funny to go upstairs to one's tent, but a good
roof overhead was rather a comfort and so was dry
ground underfoot. The entrance haU we used as a
dining-room, and the village people took the greatest
interest in watching us and seeing what we did and

CHAMBA 39

how we fed, as the place was rather off the beaten
track and sahibs very seldom came that way. One
man asked Will if he might bring his wife and family
from a distant village to look at him, as they had
never seen a white sahib.

The village shikari came to us one day late in the
afternoon and said that there was a black bear up a
jammu tree, eating the black-coloured fruit, which
was now ripe, and he had left a man to watch the
bear and had come on quickly to let us know. I
went out with him for about two miles and it was
then growing dark. The bear had shifted his
quarters, but we found him busily eating away up
in another tree. It seemed funny to me then to
shoot a bear at the top of a tree, as it was the first
one I had ever seen up so high in that position. He
was about sixty yards away, and he fell down as I
fired, roaring loudly. We found him dead not far
from the spot, and I said that he was not a very big
one. The village people assured me that he was
indeed a very large and old bear. I said that he
might be five feet, but I thought not more. They
did not agree with me, and the shikari said it was
one of the sort that grows to be very old without
increasing much in size ! I was not able to contradict
that statement, as my experience of Chamba bears
was limited.

The next bear gave us more excitement. Both
Will and I went out on the following evening to the
same jungle, which was covered with the fruit trees
called by the villagers jammu. Will saw two bears
and went after them, but could not get a shot, and

40 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

I waited with Nurrud, the shikari, who said that our
best plan was to watch and Usten for any crackHng
of branches or noise that the bear might make in
cUmbing these trees. We heard one at a distance
and crept along among wet bushes as noiselessly as
we could. Suddenly Nurrud pointed to a tree only
fifteen yards away, and there was a black bear, who
had already seen us, climbing down as fast as he
could, without making a sound. He was half hidden
by leaves and I could not see him very clearly, but
just had time for a hasty shot ; he fell with a roar,
and we heard him scuffling and grunting in the bushes
below. As we heard nothing more, the men said
that he was dead. So we went cautiously on and
came on great pools and almost continuous spurts
of blood on the ground and quite high on the long
grass and bushes. An artery must have been
severed, but one would not have believed that a bear
had so much blood to lose.

We followed this track down-hill for some little
way and met Will and his men, who joined in the
search. The track led us to the mouth of a cave
which was too dark inside for us to see anything.
The men said that there was another outlet a few
yards higher up, and Will and his coolie climbed up to
watch that and to try and get a shot from that
point. I was standing in front of the entrance and
Nurrud was beside me with the second rifle. The
men above heard a grunting and some one shouted
that the bear was coming : and out he charged,
straight for me. I hit him in the shoulder with a
bullet from the 20-bore gun — which I find a handy

CHAMBA 41

weapon on such occasions — when he was about a
yard from me. That turned him, and he rushed past
Nurrud, nearly knocking the rifle out of his hand
as he brushed against it. He was so close when
I fired, nearly touching the muzzle of the gun, yet
he gave no sign of being hit — we found the bullet
afterwards in the shoulder — ^but rushed on down-hill.
Then I heard a loud report in my ear, and found
that one of the coolies, who knew absolutely nothing
about firearms of any sort, had fidgeted with bolts
and safeties until he had managed to let off a spare
gun he was carrying. It was a wonder that he had
not killed some one.

We followed for perhaps a hundred yards to some
more rocks, where Nurrud said he could see the bear
lying, and that he still moved. It was now almost
dark, and I could only see what I thought was a
black stone. Will advised me to shoot at this,
which I did. It turned out to be the bear, and he
rolled over dead.

Next morning about two hundred people from all
the surrounding villages came in to see and hear
about the bears and to look at us ! They were kept
at a distance from our wooden palace, but still I
think they had a good view and they were deeply
interested in the way we ate our food. They were
delighted to hear of the killing of the bears, since they
did so much harm to their Indian corn before it was
ripe enough to cut.

More rain fell and there were more thunderstorms
as we marched back to Chamba. On the way poor
Rum John fell forty feet from the path to the river,

42 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

down a very steep though grassy place. He said
that he was there for three or four hours before
any one found him. He hurt his leg badly, but in a
few days he was all right again and as cheery as
ever.

When I first went shooting in India, I used a D.B.
•360 Express rifle, but this was said to be not heavy
enough for my purpose, so I got rid of it and bought
a D.B. '500 Express, black-powder rifle, and have
done nearly all my shooting ever since with that.
I am so used to it, though it is old-fashioned now,
that I never want to change it, and it is light, only
weighing a fraction over eight pounds — I used this
rifle first in Chamba.

Ill

A BELGAUM TIGER

I WAS staying with some friends — a Forest
Officer and his wife — in camp, in the Belgaum
districts, and having a very good time, but
we could not succeed in bagging a tiger that was
killing our buffaloes, and for whom we had tried
several times in vain. The men all said he was a
very big one and had lived in these jungles for
years, but was far too wary ever to give a chance
of a shot at him. Laximan, a forest guard, and
a very keen shikari, said he had seen him, and his
head was *' so big,*' measuring off about eighteen
inches between his hands to show us the size.
Another man spread his hands farther apart and
told us that was more the size, and another still
wider, so that the tiger grew every minute and his
head was well over a yard across before they had
finished with him.

Laximan said we should have a better chance of
getting him in the hot weather, and if he could
get his leave then he would go with me, if his sahib
approved. When the time came my friend most
kindly arranged matters about Laximan's leave,
and also lent me his own tent, which was much
larger than mine, for my sister, who had come out
to visit us in India.

43

44 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

When she and I were leaving the railway to start
for our little camp, I remember there was rather a
difficulty in finding enough coolies to carry out our
kit, one or two important loads being left behind
for some hours ; so that when we reached the place
we were tea-less and dinner was very late. While
we were waiting and hungering some coolies brought
us in a dozen peahen's eggs that they had found
as they were coming along. Unfortunately they
turned out to be very much sat on; too much so
to eat as eggs, and not enough to eat as boiled
chicken : so we were no better off.

The men said they could not find the nest again
to put them all back.

The march out had been very hot and poor spaniel
Bumps felt the heat terribly. He ran from one bit
of shade to another — and there was not much — and
lay down under it with his tongue hanging out. I
wondered what I could do for him to shield him
from the sun's rays, till I thought of the pony's
thin cloth, which I rolled up, laid along his back
and then tied round him. It was a great success,
and after that he trotted along in the sun quite
happily.

After our very late dinner, which we got eventually,
it was time for bed. May had the big tent with her
camp bed put right in the middle of it, and I had
my ordinary little six-foot tent. Bumps was chained
to my tent pole for safety, to keep him away from
any panther there might be prowling around, and
lay under my bed. In the middle of the still hot
night there was a crash, and down came the tent

A BELGAUM TIGER 45

over my head, and I was mixed up and weighted
down with canvas and sheets and mosquito curtains,
and had some difficulty in roUing on to the ground
and burrowing my way out from under the ruins.
As I did so I heard Bump's chain chinking as it
dragged along the ground.

When I crawled out I saw, to my reUef, in the
bright moonlight and at a little distance, Bumps
nosing along the ground and much interested in a
trail he seemed to be following. I ran up and
caught him, and then looked to see the tent. All
the back part was standing and only the front pole
knocked down, a peg or two pulled out with loose
ropes hanging to them. I went into May's tent;
she was sleeping soundly, so I woke her up and
asked if she had heard anything.

*' No, I haven't heard anything, but I think I
woke and saw a dog or something," she said.

"What sort of dog?"

** A big dog; it walked through the tent and then
all round my bed. Yes, it was a very big dog, I've
never seen such a big one. I could only see a large
sort of shadow in the dark ; but I thought perhaps
it might be the custom in India for big dogs to walk
round one's tent at night, so I didn't bother and
went off to sleep again ! "

The ground was very hard and covered with short
dry grass round the tents and so we could find no
panther tracks close by when we looked next day.
The only way that the village men could account
for this was that a panther had made a spring at
'Bumps under my bed, knocked against the pole,

46 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

which fell, and of course released the dog's cham,
and was so much surprised at the tent falling about
his ears that he bolted.

Laximan came with news, a day or two after-
wards, that a goat had been killed near the village,
so there was a leopard about; we had a beat for
him which was successful.

Reports came in from the village that the whole of
the Kanara jungles were closed for five days and
all shooting was to be stopped, as the then Governor
of Bombay was marching through on a shoot. Now
I was shooting mostly in Belgaum, although the
camp happened to be in Kanara, so I knew I should
be all right if I kept to the Belgaum side. Follow-
ing on these reports came a PoUce Inspector and
with him several sepoys; he brought a written
order to say that no one was permitted to shoot in
the Kanara district, within certain dates. I had
seen in the papers the list of villages the shooting
party would pass through, and as I was thirty miles
from the nearest point, knew that I should not spoil
the sport, and said so. The Inspector salaamed and
pointed to the paper. I said I had a permit, but
that did not seem to be of any use for the five days.
Then I said, though my tent was pitched on Kanara
soil, I was shooting in Belgaum district, and that I
would shoot on that side for the time. The Inspector
had done his duty, had no authority beyond his own
district, so went away more or less satisfied; and
left me hoping that the tiger with the face '' so
big " would not think fit to cross the boundary into
Kanara until His Excellency's shoot was over.

A BELGAUM TIGER 47

There was a tiger kill : one of our buffaloes was
taken and dragged away, and it happened to be
on the Belgaum side, a few miles off. Laximan
collected a hundred beaters and we started off. My
shooting ladder was put up on rising ground that
ran down to a nullah, and stood against a tree in
the forest line — a clearing cut straight through the
jungle, eight or ten yards wide — so that I could see
right or left for a good distance. This cutting,
funnily enough, was the boundary line of the two
districts, and the ladder stood at a slant on it,
though it was leaning against and tied to a Kanara
tree. But I think I was within my rights by about
a yard and a half !

The local shikari, Krishna, asked to have my gun
to let off occasionally in the beat — which was a
long one — there were awkward rocky places in it
and patches of thick jungle, where a tiger might lie
up, and he wanted to make sure of driving him out
and forward. I gave it to him with some blank
cartridges, and he and Laximan went off to start the
beat.

I must have sat on my ladder and waited for two
hours before I heard anything, and then there was
a double report from the gun, and it was a long
time again before there were sounds of shouting
beaters. They were still a good distance away when
I heard one or two soft crackles among the dry
leaves; and things began to grow interesting when
one of the stops tapped a tree gently on my left,
and soon after there was more discreet tapping on
the right. Another crackle, and I saw a glimmer

48 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

of white through the bamboos ; a few seconds more
I waited with the rifle up to my shoulder, and a
tiger's head, the head, appeared directly in front
of me, from under some leaves at the very edge of
the forest Une. He stopped, and the very first
thing he did was to raise his head and take a sweep-
ing look up into the trees facing him. Almost before
I saw him he saw me. He gave a snort and threw
round his head : as he did this I fired, and he turned
and galloped back into the beat, without a sound.

I felt quite sure that I had missed him, and was
very sick about it : his head was the only part of
him that I saw, and a bullet in that must surely
stun him at least. The beaters all stopped, and
the men in trees near me shouted to them to tell
them what had happened, and of course they were
aU safely up trees by then, from where they could
see ahead. Laximan and Krishna, when they saw
all was clear, came on cautiously, running from tree
to tree. Then came great hollaing and shouting
from them all, and the bang of a gun, and I pictured
how the unwounded tiger had broken back through
them and gone off. Some of the men still crept on,
but were quickly up trees when they heard an angry
snarl and a rush : the tiger charged, but only for a
very few yards. He had been lying about fifty yards
from me, very badly hit, and then I believe he fell
again. Laximan and Krishna, by some very circuit-
ous route, came round to the back of my tree.
They asked me if this was the tiger, the very big
one. I told them that I had only seen his head,
and I had missed that, and thought that he had

A BELGAUM TIGER 49

got out of the beat. They looked rather astonished
and said they were quite sure he had not gone
through the beaters or even tried to go through;
that they had seen him lying very sick under a
bamboo, and they thought not able to move. This
was cheering news, very different from what I
expected. They had come to beg for the rifle, as
Krishna could see the tiger from the top of a high
tree and he would climb up and finish him from
there. I said I most certainly would not give them
the rifle, as I was coming myself; and I told them
to take away the branches that were fixed up to
hide the ladder, so that I could get down. Laximan
said :

** If the mem-sahib comes it will put us all in
great danger : we shall have to help her into a
tree first, before we can climb, and if the bagh comes
at us then we shall have no chance. If we try and
put up the ladder, then we shall make more noise
and it will be more dangerous still."

This was quite true; I certainly could not run
up a tree as they could, but still I wanted to go, and
said I would go on foot.

Laximan said, his sahib had told him not to let
me get into danger, and I was in his charge and he
would get all the blame if anything happened ; and
also '' no promotion *' I knew he meant, though he
did not say so.

So I gave them the rifle and some cartridges and
after a time I heard them banging away. They
came back for more cartridges : more bangs ! Then
again they came ; this time they said they thought

50 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

one bullet had hit the tiger, he had shifted his
position and gone on a hundred yards. I absolutely
refused to give them any more cartridges, and
said I was going myself, so they pulled away the
boughs hiding the ladder as I climbed down. I felt
in my pockets and there was only one cartridge left.
The men who were up trees shouted to say where-
abouts the tiger was, and I went towards the place
at which they pointed. When I got near I went
down on my hands and knees and crawled up a
small bank at the side of a nuUah to look over.
The tiger was so much the colour of the leaves and
the yellow ground that for a moment I could not
see him ; but there he lay, at a few yards distance,
with his back towards me. There was a moment
of suspense, and I lay down and tried to take a very
steady aim with my one cartridge, into the back of
his neck, and fired. I suppose the bullet got the
right spot, as he never stirred after it.

Laximan and Krishna, whom I had told to stay
behind, came up, and after a short wait we all threw
stones at the tiger and found he was quite dead.
The men came swarming down from their trees,
and we were really able to measure now, and find
out the size of this wonderful head at last. He
was indeed a fine tiger, very heavy and thick, and
just over ten feet. He had clawed and bitten
savagely at the tree above him and there were long
deep scores torn down it, and teeth-marks, which
he must have done in his fury, standing up on his
hind legs and tearing down the bark ; as the scores
started from nine or ten feet high, and two of his

A BELGAUM TIGER 51

big teeth were broken too. Curiously enough, he
lay within a few yards of the dead buffalo he had
killed and dragged to that spot. Very little of it
had been eaten, but its body was one living, crawling
mass of rather long-legged, red spiders that were
eating it, and that covered it an inch or two in
depth.

The coolies cut down poles, which they tied
together, to carry the tiger back to camp, and all
these preparations took some time. As it was
nearly dark I rode back to camp and sent out a
lantern. About ten o'clock the tiger was brought
in on his stretcher by ten or twelve men amid great
shouting and yelling, while the remainder carried
flaming torches which they waved round him. A
goat had to be given to the village to be sacrificed to
Devi.

When the tiger was skinned in the morning we
found an old bullet wound below the elbow, quite
healed up and healthy, which probably accounted
for his looking up into all the trees the moment he
arrived at the clearing.

The first shot had hit him slightly above the eye ;
and it seemed to me amazing that the blow did not
even stun him and that he was able to canter back.

In the hot weather, another time, in the Dharwar
districts, I spent some time trying for a tiger. He
had killed a village cow and news had come in too
late for a beat, as the place was a good many miles
away. Mahomed, the keen forest guard, had put
up a machan ready, and wanted me to sit up all
night, which was a very hopeless thing to do for

52 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

a tiger, I always found. But as everything was
ready I tried it, with no result. At dawn, when
Mahomed and the Ranger came, they said they had
ordered men for a beat, as they thought the tiger
was still lying up in that jungle. He was; but
during the beat a stop, to turn him, had clapped his
hands loudly, and waved his pugaree at him, and
the consequence was that he gruffled angrily several
times and then came galloping past me. He fell
head over heels like a rabbit when I fired, and I
made a bad shot with the second barrel as he picked
himself up and cantered off. We waited for a time,
though Mahomed wanted to start after him at once ;
and the Ranger sent a man to the village to try
and get another gun or two, but there were none to
be had.

We started to track up and had a long hunt on
the blood trail that we found, and we worked hard
at it until dusk, when we saw no more blood, so
had to give it up, and sad to say we never found
our tiger or heard anything of him again. When
I got back I was very glad of a bath, after a night
in the tree and a hard day's work after the tiger,
although the water was so thick with brown mud
that it looked as if I had no feet, and I was certainly
dirtier after it than before. All the grass was so
dried up the cows gave no milk, and the patels of
different villages near were very good in bringing
in what they had of it in the mornings : tiny sup-
plies, at the bottom of small brass bowls, which, all
mixed together, would make about a cupful; and
they had to bring it some miles too.

A BELGAUM TIGER 53

Another time in those jungles I wounded and
lost a tiger. I followed him up to some big rocks
where, from a pool of blood and the marks we saw,
I judged he must have lain down. So it was with
great caution that we approached, but the noise of
our coming must have disturbed him and driven
him on again and we lost his tracks. I had a most
horrible cold, and fits of sneezing, when the beat
was coming along, so probably the tiger heard me
and it drove him away, as he gave me a difficult
shot though he was within fair range.

The local shikari, Yellapa, brought in news that
a buffalo had been killed and dragged a long distance,
and there his murderer had had a good feed; close
by was a pool where the tiger had gone to drink.
Yellapa said he thought he could locate the tiger;
and the jungle he was in was a possible one to beat,
but a difficult one. We got seventy beaters and
went out. There were not many good trees to
which a hammock could be tied, as it required
spreading branches to stretch it out. They tied it
with the corner ropes all close together, so that it
formed a tight sort of bag in which I could neither
sit nor stand with any degree of freedom, comfort
or steadiness. I felt as if I was in a pill-box with
an unsound bottom.

Three chital deer were beaten close by my tree :
one quite nice stag, one with horns in velvet and a
hind. There was a long pause after they passed
by, then I heard a very soft clap of hands, then
very decided clapping on my right, so I had time
to screw myself round in my piU-box, which I did

54 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

as quickly as I could, as a tiger came cantering
past about sixty yards away. When he came to a
fairly open place I took my shot, but he seemed to
take no notice whatever of it, except that after two
strides he gave a grunt, then he disappeared behind
trees before there was time for a second shot.
Mahomed and Yellapa came up with the beat and
wanted to know what had happened. I said it was
no good ; I had missed ; the hagh was too far away ;
it was an awkward shot ; I couldn't shoot from that
bag as I was not able to stand up, and so on — any
excuse for my blundering when they had tried so
hard to show sport. One of the stops then came
up. He said the tiger had carried on for several
strides after I fired, then he had nearly fallen,
recovered himself and cantered on.

I had a youth with me, a police sepoy named
Gopal, who was not learned in the ways of shikar :
if I went out after small game, with the gun, he
would point to a crow or a sparrow and say, '' Shikar,
sahib ! *' He had been told to climb up into a
tree, which was behind me as I faced the beat, so
as to see the tiger if he went by and mark where
he went. He came up looking rather scared : he
said the hagh had passed him within a yard or two,
went on a hundred yards and fell just below a bank.
We went first to the spot where I had fired at him
and there were deep marks of his claws in the ground
— a thing one never sees in the ordinary footmark,
when he goes along with the claws drawn in. Then
we went on to the place from which Gopal had seen
him, and I said :

A BELGAUM TIGER 55

" Were you up this tree? "

'* No, sahib, I was on the ground."

'* What were you doing on the ground? *'

" I didn't want to get into a tree : I wanted to
see all that was going on, so stayed below and
looked about to see what I could/*

" Then where were you when the bagh came? '*

** I jumped behind this bamboo as he came."

" And the tiger, where was he? "

'' Oh, sahib, he was a very big bagh, and he went
here," and Gopal touched the ground close to us,
where we saw tracks.

" And what did you do as he passed? "

*' I was very much frightened and trembled a
great deal, and crouched down under the bamboo."

" Did the bagh see you ? "

He was in much too great a fright to know any-
thing more, he said, but as soon as the tiger had
gone by he had certainly watched it all, and he was
sure that he saw him fall near the bank of the
nullah. I thought this was all his fancy and that
he was far too much frightened to watch anything ;
but he knew so little about shooting generally that
I am sure he never realized the danger he had
been in. Yellapa and Mahomed were immensely
amused.

We began the hunt. It was an open piece of
jungle that we were coming to and the shikaris and
I rather spread out so that we could see on all sides
as one of us followed up the tracks. It is always
an exciting job this following up, and one of hope
and expectancy. Suddenly Mahomed turned tail

56 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

and ran back to me with a broad grin on his face,
saying, *' There's the hagh '* : and he pointed
out a striped back just at the place where Gopal
said he had fallen — at the top of the nullah bank.
He was lying down eighty or a hundred yards
distant.

I fired and he rolled over, but came back again
to his first position, when I shot again. He tried to
get up, and I saw a big head raised, with the mouth,
a great red mouth, very wide open. I managed to
get a bullet into his head, which rolled him over,
below the bank. We went rather wide of him,
crossed the nullah and came up from the far side.
Yellapa did not wait a single minute to make sure
that he was dead : he rushed up and pulled him by
the tail.

It was a good tigress, but with a very short tail,
and measured 8 ft. 8 in. and was enormously fat.
The first shot had gone into her chest and lungs.
Then with joy and shoutings she was carried home
on the ladder.

Just before I had to leave these jungles a chital
stag came tearing across a field in front of my tent,
and dropped down a very steep-sided dry nullah,
with a crash. As he did not appear again '' Bumps
Raja," as they call him, and I rushed up to see
what had happened. The chital had fallen fifteen
feet or more, had not broken a leg, as I had rather
expected, and was running about in an aimless way
at the bottom of this deep nullah, seeming rather
dazed and unable to make his way out. He looked
anxiously at Bumps, who was ready to go in at

A BELGAUM TIGER 57

him ; and then five or six pi dogs (village dogs, any
breed or no breed) joined in and tried to tackle
him, but he kept them more or less at bay. The
men came and we drove the dogs off, and found
that the chital had been shot through the back,
below the spine ; he was quite knocked out by that
and his fall. The men caught him md cut his
throat very speedily, and they thought they were
in luck's way, getting a good dinner so easily, and
the dinner belonging to some one else too I — the
man who had shot him.

I have often taken measurements of animals and
afterwards of their skins to find out the difference
between them, and if many inches are gained or
lost.

I have found, say, a lo ft. tiger skin will measure
12 ft., if stretched fairly in proportion to its width.
But after being through the curer's and dresser's
hands the length of the skin will be practically the
same as the tiger when the first peg-to-peg measure-
ment was made.

I found that a panther, which measured 7 ft. 5 in.
immediately after it was shot, only came out at 7 ft.
after it had been brought home and stiffness had
set in.

We several times employed a Hindu taxidermist,
Uving in the Bombay Presidency, for setting up
heads, which, by the way, he did remarkably well.
He sent us one or two of his advertisement booklets
describing the kind of work he undertook, from
which I give some samples. They are of rather

58 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

ancient date, and since Education Acts, and so
on, have come in, he may have altered his style,
though I do not think he can have improved on
it. After his name, at the head of the page, came :

" Undertaking works of Shotted by Sportsmen
and Gentlemen the large and small games of all
kinds of wild Animals Birds Reptiles, Fishes, etc.

Curing and Dressing Skins.

Tiger, Lion, Lion-cub, Figor-Cub, Hyeana wolf,
Senagle, Koklo, orix. Wallers. Black-buck, Tohe,
wild-cat, fishing-cat.

Tigdig, badger, Managoss, rabit, croker. Monkey,
Kangano, Jackol ... or any kind of small lovely
animals' skins made into rugs.

Directions. — ^The shot animal to be skinned
well : — remove superfluous flesh and preserve the
fresh skin with Preserving Powder, rubbing both
sides, but mostly the flesh side. . . .

Animals Mounted and Set Up, with Whole

Body,
Tiger, Lion, Panther, etc., shot by sportsman and
native Rajas, set up in natural posture, life-like in
every artistic style as under : (i) Sitting, (2) Stand-
ing upright, (3) laying down, (4) jumping, (5) Play-
ing, (6) Walring with a simultaneous furious stare,
(7) walking into jungle, to search for prey, staying
at once, expecting about into great rage, at fierce
open mouth, (8) putting up a music instrument
(into stomach) to produce a grouling sound from
open mouth at extra charges, (9) with or without

A BELGAUM TIGER 59

the protector of glass case, (10) With or without
gungle viewes into case. As per terms required.

Par. IV. — Heads set up at closed mouth, with
full face, inserting eyes as tropical connecting skin
or neck cut to hang on wall or to spread on ground.'*

IV

IN THE KANAKA JUNGLES

IN sitting up over live goats used as decoys, I
was always greatly interested in watching
them to see their behaviour when tied up and
left to themselves; and I often pictured to myself
how I should feel in their position. I used to
attract their attention by voice or movement
directly the men who tethered them had gone away,
in order to try and ease their minds 1 But I came
to the conclusion that they were not troubled by
feeUngs of fear. A goat would bleat a little at first,
nibble at leaves and any suitable green food that
could be found for him, and then lie down to slumber.
If a panther did come, the goat's death was practically
instantaneous, that is, if the panther were not
smitten down by a bullet before he had time to get
a fair hold and finish his work.

On the occasion of which I am writing, the goat
was tied up at only a short distance from the rest
bungalow and within fifty yards of the high-road
where bullock carts and shouting men were con-
stantly passing. I had a hammock rigged up in a
tree to sit in. It was a piece of sacking about five
feet square, with ropes stitched along each side, and

strong ropes at each corner which were tied taut to

60

IN THE KANAKA JUNGLES 6i

branches to prevent sagging. It was light and
handy, and also, given a suitable tree, easy to fix
up. It was most useful and comfortable, either to
shoot from or to roU over in and get a good sleep,
as one was often glad to do after the moon had set.
In this instance the hammock was fixed up and I
climbed in, expecting to have a long wait, as the
jungle was rather open and the place pubUc, and I
could see all the passers-by. But quite soon a
monkey gave the warning, beginning to swear when
he saw his enemy, the panther; several more joined
in, and a red squirrel chattered angrily. They all
had a great deal to say, so I was on the alert,
especially when I heard stealthy movements among
the dead leaves.

This time the goat was not asleep; he sneezed
violently several times, stamped his foot as a
challenge and ran back to the end of his tether.
Some animal made a rush of a few yards and stopped
dead — then another, and I saw a panther's head
appear behind one of the big branches of my tree.
One more rush and he was seizing the goat under
the throat. The goat was standing, and the panther,
almost lying flat, curled and wriggled his body hke
a snake as he made his attack. Before he had time
to get his grip, I shot him in the back, between the
two shoulders, and he only gave a gasp or two,
opening and shutting his mouth.

The goat had not fallen, and after gazing at his
dead enemy for a few seconds, he made a terrific
rush and butted at him with sounding thuds. It
was a long lean panther and measured 7 ft. 3 in.

62 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

Another time, in thick bamboo jungle, I tied up a
lantern with a shade over the top, which reflected
the light in a circle on to the ground and the goat.
It bleated for a time, then lay down and went to
sleep. It was a dark night and the panther came
very late. I heard nothing until he sprang from
under the ladder I was sitting on, and landed with
a soft thud on to the goat, who that moment jumped
to its feet. I heard a roar and a gurgle and saw a
confused dark mass below as they rolled on the
ground together.

By the light cast by the lantern, I could see well
enough to get my shot, and killed him. To my
surprise, the goat got up, looking, with its head
funnily cocked on one side, the picture of amazement
and satisfaction. It stood over the body with its
nose on the panther, sniffing at it.

I climbed quickly down from the ladder and ran
up to feel if the goat was trembling or if its heart
was beating fast. Not a bit of it ! It was quite
normal and self-contained, so to speak, and it trotted
along home seeming perfectly content. Its wounds
were syringed and disinfected, but the next day it
could not swallow properly and it died a day or two
later.

In the Kanara jungles there were very few tigers
compared with the number of leopards, but there
can be some excitement with leopards at times.

I was camping in a place called Lakoli, where
the patel of the village was a very sporting old
man and quite a character. One morning word was
brought to me that a pig had been killed by a tiger

IN THE KANARA JUNGLES 63

in the jungle, and would I make arrangements to
tie up there. I thought it was better to beat straight
away, so the patel, quite keen, sent on at once to
collect coolies. He drove me out in his bullock cart
as soon as I had had my breakfast.

On the way out, a man came to meet us with fresh
khubber, which was that the pig had been killed the
previous day, but that only about an hour before
a cow had been killed in a field, in broad daylight.
The cowman saw the whole thing. It was a panther
and not a tiger; he had drunk the blood from the
cow's throat, then left her and seized her half-grown
calf and had bitten through its shoulder, but it had
somehow managed to escape.

Nevertheless, we beat. It was quite a small
stretch of jungle and had been burnt, all the grass
and undergrowth being in ashes. The patel and I
settled we would have a silent beat, as the ground
was so clear and open, and I did not want the panther
frightened and made to come galloping by.

The beaters were not long in coming. In the
distance I saw, from my machan, something yellow
shp by which the man said afterwards was a chital
stag. Then the monkeys swore and chattered and
I soon saw a big panther appear from behind a
burnt bamboo clump, stealing along the far side
of a nullah very quietly about forty yards away.
He stopped for a second to look about him, and was
just moving on again when I shot. He fell over all
right, but then sat up like a dog and was starting to
crawl off when I gave him the second barrel. He
went away as fast as he could, one hind leg dragging

64 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

on the ground behind him and he was soon hidden
by bamboos. The patel and some men had come up,
and I got down and followed him up at once, thinking
he was so badly hit I could safely finish him off, but
I had made bad shots and had hit him too far behind.
We could plainly see the panther's track and the
long continuous mark of his broken leg dragging in
the black ashes. I said we would all go up in a body,
and I told the men to have their axes ready but to
keep behind me. They did keep behind, a very long
way, and small blame to them; but the patel
wanted no urging, and was at my elbow all the
time.

We had not far to go and suddenly came on the
panther about ten yards away, lying down under a
bamboo, tail towards us, looking round. I aimed
rather quickly, tried to get his spine, missed it and
got him close to the hip. He whipped round and
snaked along the ground straight for me. It was
the matter of an instant. I never would have
believed that a crippled animal could come at that
pace : he was at my feet, practically on them, as I
remember quite well running backwards two steps,
to avoid him before I got my aim. I fired the
second barrel and he rolled over on his back, biting
fiercely at one of his paws that he had put in his
mouth. I loaded and put a finisher in his neck to
make sure, and then looked round. The staunch
patel was still at my elbow, but not another man to
be seen. However, they all soon swarmed round and
there was tremendous excitement : everybody talked
at once, shook hands ! salaamed ; went through the

IN THE KANAKA JUNGLES 65

whole scene over and over again, pointing and
gesticulating.

The patel said : *' You see, I did not leave you,
sahib." I told him I knew that well enough and
that he had a big heart; and the men clustered
round and said, *' We will not be afraid of going out
with the mem-sahib again."

He was a fine big panther — 7 ft. 10 in. ; and I have
just walked tenderly over his skin, stretched on the
floor, as I have a great respect for him.

After the beat I went to see the dead cow and the
poor little calf with the broken, crushed forearm.
It had tooth-marks in its throat as well and long
scratches, and tears on its back. It was Hmping
on three legs and they began to drive it home, poor
little beast. I asked them to let me shoot it and
end its misery, for I knew that soon the wounds
would be full of maggots. No, it was against their
religion and they would not let me do so. I said it
would never be of any use to them and I would give
'* plenty baksheesh." But it was not to be allowed.
I tried to buy it, offering a good price, but had
reluctantly to give it up.

We started for home in a triumphal procession.
We had to stop at three villages to exhibit the
panther, and aU the people ran out, forming large
circles round us. At one place they brought me a
small brass lota of very good warm milk.

All this made me very late and, on reaching camp,
I found Sadu, my boy, and the sweeper in tears.
They said a man had come back to fetch my hammock
— I had meant to sit up over the cow if the panther

F

66 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

was not in the beat — and they knew I had no dinner
and no rugs; and there was a big tiger and there
might be danger, and they didn't know what might
happen to me. They had got my food and things
ready to go out, but daren't send them till orders
came. But the excitement of the bagh being brought
in soon cheered them up.

Sadu told me I had had nothing to eat aJl day,
and he got me some hot milk with whisky in it and
it was good, and the patel sent me some sweet
chapatU things for dinner.

The next morning I was sitting with a sketch-book
in my hand and something ran up my coat sleeve,
outside happily. I looked to see what it was and
found it was a scorpion. I tried to knock it off with
the book, missed it and lost sight of it, so called to
the servants, who did not hear. I lifted my arm
and just managed to see it under the arm-pit, so
caught it by its tail and flung it down, when it was
easily killed.

Another time I was emptying out my cartridge
bag and felt along the bottom to see if anything was
left inside. I found, as I thought, a little bit of
stick, so pinched it rather tight and took it out. It
gave a kick and jumped out of my hand and a
scorpion fell on the bed. Lucky not to have been
stung either time.

At this camp, too, I came home one evening and
found Bumps, the spaniel, in a terrible state. He
was wandering about in an aimless way, then
throwing himself on the ground writhing and foam-
ing at the mouth, then wandering again. He came

IN THE KANARA JUNGLES 67

up to me once or twice, but took no notice of me. I
felt quite sure he was mad. He tore along and got
on my bed, a thing he never did, would not come off
and lay and rolled about. I asked Sadu and the
others about him and they said they could not
understand it, he had been like that for an hour or
more.

I wondered if I ought to shoot him. Shoot him !
my brown Bumps ! I thought of the gun and a
No. 6 cartridge and the wound there would have to
be in his velvet head. Yet for the good of every
one I supposed I ought to do it.

I couldn^t bring myself to it, so chained him up
in my tent and let him lie on the lower shelf of my
clothes stand, where he was rather quieter, while I
dined and thought about it.

Sadu was acting cook as well as doing his other
duties as boy; he was not a ''blue ribbon'' chef,
and I noted in my diary : ** Funny dinner, hoping
for better things — but he means well."

I determined to let matters be till the morning,
undressed to go to bed, pulled off my stockings and
then I knew ! Colonies of little black ants, streets
of them, were racing over my feet and up my legs,
sticking their horrid sharp little nippers in. Oh,
my feet ! and oh, my Bumps I whom I had so nearly
shot !

Bumps was at once released and sent far away.
The servants came and we had the tent down and
straw was strewn about and burnt, leaving a large
ashy patch which soon cleared off all the ants.

I changed my camp to Mundgod, a few miles off.

68 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

and started early, leaving the servants to follow. I
found a very nice place for the tent, under a big
mango tree. Some former sahib had found it a nice
spot and had camped there too, his servants having
left Httle heaps of straw and feathers and rubbish,
though these were swept up quite tidily.

While I was waiting for the servants I thought
it would be both useful and amusing to make bonfires
of the heaps of rubbish. The first heap took a good
deal of lighting and many matches, but it flared
away eventually and burnt out. I set fire to one
or two more, and then a strong breeze sprang up
and the rough grass around caught fire. I tried to
beat out the flames, which ran along in a long line,
but as soon as I had got one end of the fire under, the
other end got ahead. The man who drove my tonga
came to my help and we tried to beat it out with
sticks. An old village man arrived next and showed
us that leafy branches were much better to use than
sticks. By this time the fire was well ahead and we
could only try and keep down one end of it. It
raced along in the wind down the field boundaries
up to the road on one side and to the jungle on the
other.

When the servants came in, they set to work too.
It was a warm job, what with the hot blazing April
sun and the fire and the hard work. Eventually
we thought we had got the flames under, but while I
was having an afternoon sleep a big roaring woke
me and I saw a new strip of grass was flaring up
towards the tent, which we struck very quickly
and beat out the flames over again. The jungle

IN THE KANAKA JUNGLES 69

was burnt for miles, everything was black and
smoking on two sides, and I felt very guilty of setting
fire to the world.

In the evening we had another fight with the
flames, just after I had changed my dripping clothes
and had had a bath too !

In the middle of the night there was a lot of shout-
ing and loud cracks of burning sticks ; we could see
from the camp bright high flames in the village. It
was the Forest Guard's hut which stood in the middle
of the village, and nearly all his possessions were
burnt. How they saved the other huts within three
or four yards I don't know — as not a drop of water
was to be had.

I was greatly reheved to find out that I was not
the cause of this last disaster, and that my fire had
not gone near the village, but that an enemy had
done this thing.

BISON JUNGLES

WE were stationed in Dharwar, and as there
were said to be some good bison in the
Kanara jungles, which were handy to get to
from there, I took my tent and went out for a week.
To help me, I was allowed to have a fireman belonging
to the railway. He was called Jungli Billi (wild
cat) on account of his wonderfully stealthy and
noiseless movements and his knowledge of the jungle
and all that was in it. He never seemed to tread on
a stick or crush a leaf under his foot, and when he
was walking behind me I often looked round to see
if he was really there.

I was using steel-tipped bullets in the Express
rifle, and, before I started, a friend told me that
bison were dangerous things and that my rifle
was not heavy enough for them, and that he
would lend me his own 12-bore rifle. He added
that I might have a little difliculty with the hammer
of the right barrel, as it was broken, and to cock it
one had to tie a bit of string round it and pull it up ;
also the left barrel often jammed after one had fired !
Needless to say, I never ventured on anything so
dangerous as letting it off, though I made a point
of taking it with me, for fear of seeming too ungrateful.

70

BISON JUNGLES 71

The name of the camp was Atli, and I think that
AtU consisted of two tiny huts, for I do not remember
seeing anything else approaching a village; and
the tent was put up in the middle of thick jungle,
with no clearing of any sort. It was a most pictur-
esque spot, though rather a dangerous one for the
pony at night, as any prowling creature could have
taken him off so easily.

JungU Billi said that we must start out very early
to look for bison, certainly not later than 2 a.m. I
did not know how far he intended going, so we set
off in darkness and stumbled along for two hours,
up to our shoulders in long grass dripping with dew,
and very cold dew too, in December. When he
stopped, I asked him what we were to do next. He
said, '* Sit and wait I " It still wanted several
hours to dawn, and there we sat, shivering and soaked
to the skin.

When dawn came we looked about in what he
said were likely spots, but found no tracks. We
repeated this procedure every day for a week,
though after the first day's experience I refused
to get up till five o'clock. I shot a bison one day,
but he was small, and there was no incident connected
with him worthy of note,

JungU Billi was disappointed. He said if I would
come out in three months' time, when there had been
a few thunderstorms, the grass would have begun
to grow and we should be sure to find the bison
feeding in the clearings.

I went out to the same place again in March, but
Jungli Billi could not get leave this time. I took

^t DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

Subrao, whom we had trained as our shikari, and he
became a very good one and especially keen and,
wonderful to say, he always spoke the truth. I had,
besides, Mahadeo and Ganpat, two local men.

I was sitting writing in camp one morning, when
I felt small soft things faUing on my helmet. I
thought that they were bits of leaf and stuff from
the big trees overhead, so took no notice for some
time. But the pattering on my topi continued, and
then I noticed that the ground all round me was
thickly dotted with sweet-smeUing white flowers,
like little tassels. I looked up and saw several
small monkeys peeping down, pulling off the blossoms
of the tree and having shots at me. They ran away
and hid behind branches when they found I was
watching them, but as soon as I began to write again
they came back and started pelting me. They kept
at it for an hour or more, so that there was a continual
pattering on my topi and a carpet of flowers strewn
around me. They were delighted when they hit
me and chattered loudly, and it was most amusing
to watch them, which I could do by looking through
my fingers ; and they seemed to be as much amused
as I was.

We went out each morning long before dawn, and
the men took a torch and lantern, as it was almost
impossible to make our way in the dark. The lights
were put out before we reached the clearing in the
forest where we were to sit and watch, and where we
hoped the bison would come to ieed.

When it was light enough to see, we walked on
to a small and dirty pool of water to search for tracks.

BISON JUNGLES 73

One day, Mahadeo, who was looking about, came
back to say he could see a very big khulgaur, with
homs *' so long," spreading out his arms as wide
as they would go. I went with him and he pointed
out a small bull that I would not shoot at.

Subrao suggested that we should look over the
rise in the ground beyond, and Mahadeo and Ganpat
went first to show the way. When we had climbed
the rise, I saw the backs of a big herd of khulgaur
over some scrub, about sixty yards off. The two
men were tramping along, not having noticed any-
thing. They were small men and I could see over
their heads, and was afraid they would go walking
along on to the top of the herd and frighten them. So
I ran on quickly and kicked them on the calves.
That rather astonished, but effectually stopped them,
and they dropped down. The place was all in the
open, no trees at all, and only a few low bushes
growing here and there.

I crept on a few yards and picked out the biggest
and thickest horns I could see and aimed behind
the animal's shoulder. It was a thick misty morning
and for a few seconds there was nothing to be seen
but smoke. When it cleared away I saw the bison
sinking to his knees and I fired the second barrel
into his back, which I found afterwards had paralysed
him behind. There was again smoke which hid
everything, and then there came a mighty trampling
of animals aU round me, and a herd of bison, looming
through the cloud, stampeded by. The herd had
split up and half passed in front of me and the others
behind.

74 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

I turned for my second rifle, a -500 Fraser. Subrao
was standing close to me and handed it at once;
the other two men had disappeared. About half
a dozen bison gaUoped off into the thick jungle
ahead and the rest turned and raced past us again
at about fifteen yards. I fired at what I thought
was the biggest one, but they all went off and were
soon lost to sight.

It was time to turn our attention to the fallen one.
He was watching us and in a fury ; he was not able
to use his hind-quarters, but rose from his knees
and stood, his head down, ploughing the ground
with his great horns, sending up clouds of dust and
grass and pebbles all round him. He would raise
his head again and again and look at us, furious at
not being able to come at us or defend himself.
He looked a grand beast as he stood tossing his great
head at us and then battering the ground again in
his rage. One realized what his onslaught might
have been if he had only had the use of his hind
legs too. I fired once more as soon as I could load.
Then, when I saw that he could not move, I went close
up to him, and Subrao with me, to finish him. He
fell over, but still occasionally tried to beat the ground
with his head, and it was difficult even then to find
the real vital spot and end it all.

About this time the two local shikaris reappeared.
The khulgaurs off foreleg was sticking out stiffly
as he lay, and we measured with a bamboo from the
withers to the heel, and made his height 18 hands
2 inches. The outside measurement of the horns,
including'^across the head, was 82 inches.

BISON JUNGLES 75

We went back to the *' bungalow," as Ganpat
called the little tent, and had to send eight miles
for coolies to skin the bison and bring in the head.
The servants asked permission to go and look at
him and said they thought it was an elephant 1
The head was not brought in until next day. Four
men carried it tied on to a pole, like the pictures
of Canaan grapes, and they said it was a big load.
None of the men knew how to skin it and it was
already smelling rather high, but the Portuguese
cook, Jeronimo, said he would try, and he and I
did it between us. The skin at the back of the head
and neck was enormously thick, and I asked Jeronimo
why he was cutting off so many beefsteaks, as we
only wanted the skin, but he showed me that all
he was doing was skinning and as thinly as possible.

We went out again another day early — too early —
and walked right into a herd of bison that were sleep-
ing peacefully. They seemed to be getting up all
round us and made off in the darkness. I stupidly
fired at one that I thought I could make out on the
skyline as looking very big, and found afterwards
that I had killed a cow, which was a very grievous
thing.

This is a terrible jungle for the small Kanara tick.
In walking through dry grass one gets literally
covered with them, from head to foot. They are
tiny things, about the size of grains of pepper,
ground pepper, and one looks as if one had shaken
the pepper pot over one's body. Each little beast
gets his head well in under the skin and is very
difi&cult to get off. Nothing seems to keep them off ;

76 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

they seem to thrive on Scrubbs's ammonia, vaseline
and soap. I counted three hundred of them one
day on my arm between wrist and elbow. The
irritation is unendurable, especially at night, and
one tosses and rolls about, and scratches continuously.
They sometimes become poisonous, and a friend of
ours was once sent home on sick leave owing to their
bites. They infest bison, and sometimes leopards,
in Kanara.

The first time that I went out to Atli I was unpre-
pared for these pests, but the next time I wore
" next to nothings " that I had invented myself
and which I think I ought to patent. The garment
was an oblong bag, sHt up below into two bags,
literal bags, for my legs, loose enough for me to move
in them. It had sleeves and was made of one piece
of very thin silk so that it went under everything,
socks included. It tied round the neck and wrists
like a bag, and, to make the ticks dislike me more,
I rubbed kerosene oil and tobacco juice on my neck
and wrists. No trouble was too great to take, no
evil smell too strong to endure in order to keep off
these insects, whose ravages lasted, I found, for at
least three weeks and sometimes for three months.
It was a great satisfaction to me, when I got back
from shooting and pulled my clothes off, to see
hundreds of ticks wandering about outside my bug-
proof bag, unable to find an entrance. I threw all
my clothes outside, bag included, and Kundi put
them in a bucket of boiling water.

The next time I went into bison jungles was after
the rains, and then it was the open season for leeches.

BISON JUNGLES 77

They sat on every blade of grass with their heads
outstretched, ready to ding to anything eatable that
came their way. The Indians were so much afraid
of them that they would never travel alone along
jungle paths : so the shikari said. They were afraid,
if they sat down to rest, that they might falj alseep
and be blood-sucked to death.

The evening I arrived I went out with Laximan,
the shikari. Later, when Kundi was pulUng off
my gaiters, he gave a cry of dismay and I saw my
socks covered with blood and several long fat leeches
lying on the ground. There were several more on
my feet. I asked how I was to get them off. Hus-
sein, who was a real jungle man, said it was quite
easy, " like this." He put some very black tobacco
in his mouth, chewed it up and pointed to his foot,
saying, '* Suppose the jonk is on this place." And
then he spit at his raised foot and got the very spot !
I was not so expert as this, so Kundi applied tobacco
juice, otherwise distilled, and salt, and they soon
dropped off. But dealing with leeches was child's
play after ticks.

Wandering through the jungle one afternoon,
we heard something moving, and Hussein made out
a bison — he called them kulga — behind some bam-
boos. He said that he could not see his horns well,
but that as he was soUtary he must be a big one.
I went on alone a Uttle way, and the animal heard me,
for he snorted and stamped. I thought I could see
his horns and that he was standing facing me, so
I crawled on to where I could get a clear shot at
his breast. He bellowed angrily at the shot. I

78 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

went back to get the men to bring the second rifle,
and they said, by the noise he made, they were sure
it was a tiger. We waited and heard snorting
and hard breathing. Laximan went on and said
he could see the kulga waving his head slowly from
side to side and looking very sick. Then he said the
jungli kulga was coming, and as we heard a stamping
we all ran for trees, the men very nobly giving me
a leg up to a branch before they climbed their own
trees.

Nothing happened, so I got down, fired another
shot, and then bolted for my tree. The bison
did not come on and I began to climb down again.
There was a very sharp thorny briar growing up
the trunk of my tree. My foot slipped. I tried to
cling on to the trunk, but clutched the thorns and
tore the palm of my hand as I slithered down and
tumbled out of the tree. It was difficult to shoot
after this, as I could scarcely grip the rifle ; however,
I managed to fire another shot or two where I imagined
the body belonging to a white leg that I saw kicking
to be lying. Laximan went rather nearer and said
he could see the bison lying dead. And all this fuss
about a smallish bull whose horns were not big at
all!

In the mornings, in this jungle one saw a great
many very handsome, striped, black and yellow
spiders that spin enormous webs from bush to bush,
six or seven feet wide and equally high. The webs
are very sticky and very strong and one felt quite
a perceptible but passive resistance from them when
walking into them unawares.

BISON JUNGLES 79

One day I had a tiger beat, which was blank;
and at the same time that we were beating, so the
stationmaster told me, our tiger was standing
close beside the line, looking through the wire fence
watching a goods train as it passed.

On another morning, after a heavy thunderstorm,
when it was possible to move along silently among
^ the fallen leaves, I was out tracking up bison. We
found the marks of several hoofs and one big track
that we thought must be that of a good bull. We
followed the trail for some way, and then, unseen,
came up with a small herd, and we stood watching
them browsing, and looking for the big bull, but there
were only one or two fair-sized bulls and some cows
among them, and nothing worth shooting. So I
unloaded the rifles and gave them to the shikari and
coolie to carry. The cUck of shutting the guns
made the bison look up, and at that moment I saw
two tigers among the trees stealthily approaching
the herd. They were stalking the herd too and were
totally unaware of our presence. When the bison
lifted their heads, the tigers stopped, and the herd
saw them and clustered together, facing the enemy.
The tigers, seeing the game was up, turned to go,
and began to walk slowly away, pausing now and
then to look round.

I had run up to the coolie, who was some yards
away, to get my rifle, and should have had time for
a nice shot, but the man lost his head, shouted, '' Bagh,
bagh" and tore after the tigers with the empty rifle.
I don't think he had a notion of what he was doing.
I called to the shikari to give me the other rifle, but

8o DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

he started to run after the coolie, whistHng and
signaUing to him to stop. The man stopped and
came back almost at once, but too late for the rifle
to be of any use. The tigers, seeing the men's
wild rush after them, cantered heavily away and
were soon lost to sight in the jungle. I was too busy
watching them to take any notice of the bison or
to see what they were doing, and, when I did look,
they had all disappeared in another direction.

The shikari told that cooHe off when he came back
and I helped.

One day, in a beat, the men caught a tiny bison,
only a few days old. The poor little thing was
screaming with fear, and I thought it would be sure
to die in captivity; so I told them to let it go and
hunted it off into the jungle myself, for fear that
they should kill it to eat. I hoped that its mother
would come back and find it, but I am not at all
sure that it was not eventually captured again,
after my back was turned.

VI

IN THE HIMALAYAS

MY brother Ned (Col. E. P. Smith, R.A., who
was killed in Gallipoli) and I went for some
months into the mountains, starting through
Kashmir and going on eventually up the Wardwan
nullah to Suru and Zanskar. It was really a wonder
that we ever met. We had settled to go shooting
somewhere together, either in Kashmir or Mysore —
places a long way apart ! and he was stationed up
North and my husband and I in Dharwar. He was
always lazy about letter- writing and left all arrange-
ments on this occasion till the last minute. I knew
when his leave began and the day I was to set off
for somewhere to join him. The day before I started
Ned sent this rather ambiguous telegram : '' You
tak the high road and 111 tak the low road and I'll
be in Scotland afore ye," but he never said which
Scotland ! However, I started all the same, not
knowing in which direction he might be travelling;
but we did meet by some extraordinary chance, and
I found him waiting for me on the platform at Rawal
Pindi, and he was there first ! Though this was
lucky, misfortune dogged our steps in other ways.
We were prevented going to places we had intended
by falls of snow that had, that year, been very much
heavier than usual, and later in the season as well.

G 8i

82 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

Rivers held us up which in ordinary years could be
forded, but were now in too flooded a condition to
cross ; our coolies, in fact, refused to do so, as several
hill people had lately been drowned in attempting
it. It was one of those exceptional seasons that so
constantly occur, and nasty exceptional, not nice
exceptional, at that.

We chmbed after ibex and after bear, but they
always seemed to elude us. Then when we got far
away from Kashmir after many marches, the head
shikari hurt his leg badly and was unable to walk,
and the second man was taken ill, suffering from his
heart, which Ned said was all owing to undue strain
in carrying me several times on his back over streams
and bad places ; and it was nearly impossible to get
any sport without their help.

We crossed the Woolar Lake by boat and meant
to tie up to the bank for the night, but the water
was too shallow and there were too many weeds to
get close in, so the boatmen drove down stakes at
some distance from the shore, to which we tied up.
In the middle of dinner a violent wind storm came
on, and we had to leave our oldish chicken very
suddenly to fly and hold on to everything we could.
The chiks were blown inside out ; I saw the whole
of my bedding swept overboard. My boy gave a
groan of dismay as we both rushed towards it and
caught hold of the pillow and the last corner of sheet
and dragged them back; but rugs, dressing-gown
and other things floated away on the waves. Ned
had meanwhile to tie down and secure the table-
cloth, and try and save the table too, with the cold

IN THE HIMALAYAS 83

remains of our dinner, from being swept away by
these tremendous gusts. The boatmen gave no
practical help whatever, but, in a panic, sat and
recited loud prayers at the top of their voices.

This violent wind raged for, perhaps, fifteen
minutes and then dropped as suddenly as it had
started. The cook boat had been blown from its
moorings and was tied up again a long way off, and
the cook sent word that the pudding had gone over-
board, so had his fire and the remaining sticks were
so drenched with spray he was not able to light them,
and there would be no more dinner ! My wet rugs
were at last brought back by a man on the shore
where they had been blown.

We travelled up the Jhelum river in boats and
then started on our march.

At one place on the road we were crossing, by a
smaU wooden bridge, a stream that overflowed its
banks; both ends of the bridge were flooded and
rather difficult of access. Our baggage ponies did
not like the look of it, but most of them, after some
urging, got over safely. One pony who refused to
go was pushed through the water up to the bridge,
went too near the edge, put his foot in a hole and
fell into the stream. He scrambled to his legs over
rough boulders, fell over into the water again and
swam across with his load. He tried his best to
get his footing, but on landing he fell again and his
load slipped, four guns, all the cartridges, the tiflin
basket and Ned's bedding all disappearing under
the water. It took some time to fish the things out,
and we opened the guns and cartridges at once to

84 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

try and dry them in the sun. The pony was the
easiest to dry and suffered the least harm.

The paths, too, were very wet and sHppery, as I
found when riding a Uttle country pony up a steep
bit of hill. He gathered himself together to make
an effort, digging his fore toes into the ground, but
slipped, sat down on his hind quarters — when I slid
off — and went completely head over heels back-
wards. Then he rolled over and over on his side
some long distance down the grassy slope and was
brought up by a bit of level ground. The little
Dobbin got up, shook himself and then came back
to be mounted. He was allowed to climb unloaded
for a time until we reached more level going. Then
Ned's heels slipped up on a very greasy place and
he sat down suddenly in a dirty puddle. He was
very angry and said something about Providence
having far less consideration for Ms feelings than
for those of the spectators ! Some of the huts we
passed were built into the side of the hills, with flat
grassy roofs supported by posts and rafters. One
of the huts was on the lower side of, and the roof
just level with, the road, and we were amused to see
our coolies walk on to it, sit down and hold a long con-
versation with the family inside, down the chimney.

Such heavy rain fell that we could neither march
nor pitch our tents — the rain had begun after we
had started — so we stopped at the first village we
came to and took refuge in a large wooden house,
part of which the headman put at our disposal.
He turned out four tiny dark rooms for us on the
first floor, the best he had ; they were over a steamy

IN THE HIMALAYAS 85

cowshed, but we were very glad of them, and we
could have a fire lighted to dry ourselves, though
there was no proper outlet for the wood smoke,
which made our eyes smart. My bedroom was
very dark and the frame of the glassless window was
only about six inches square; the servants had a
room as well, and we all thought we were in luxury.

Two of the servants wished to leave on account of
all the bad weather we were having. One man gave
of course the usual reason for wanting to go : his
mother was just dead and he must go and bury
her — we have had a servant whose mother died
seven times and his father thirteen — the other man,
Ganga Din, said he was going to die, and if we did
not give him more coats and blankets and clothes
generally he certainly would die. We had given
him and all of them the usual supply at starting,
but he continued to warn us daily about his approach-
ing end, till at last Ned told him that he caused us
so much anxiety by his constant deaths that he
had better go, but if the worst came to the worst,
and he died before he could start for home, we
would make all suitable arrangements for his decent
burial. The weather improved and Ganga Din
thought better of it.

We went over the Bhot Kol pass and down to
Sum and Parkatze and camped, after a fortnight's
marching, under the Gonpa, the monastery of
Rangdum. The Gonpa stood on a hill, and the hill
on an island, as just above it the river branched
into two and then joined again below. To reach
mainland one had to wade or go on pony-back.

86 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

The Gonpa was in the middle of a wide flat
valley far above tree level, and near the foot of
Nun Kun, which was a gloriously bold and rugged
mountain.

As soon as we arrived the monks came down to
see us. They wore long red robes and red caps that
they could turn down over their ears, made of rough
cloth. They talked in a language that not even
the shikaris could understand, and sat round and
laughed and held their red blankets up to keep off
the wind as they helped us to light a fire. They
took great interest in us and our preparations for
boiling a kettle for tea. Most of them were rather
old, rather dirty and not very handsome, but they
were all very friendly. Their cook was the youngest
of them, and he had a donkey that carried bags on
his back for taking supplies up and down the
hiU.

In the morning Ned and I went up to return the
Lamas' caU. They took us inside the Gonpa and
then on to see their holy place, which had several
prayer-wheels outside. The Lamas made signs that
we might go inside if we took off our leather sandals.
It was dark and damp and the stone floor deadly
cold to our stockinged feet. Some of the gods were
rather pretty we thought, and they all had bowls of
water to drink, in front of them. The monks turned
the prayer-wheels as we went in and out, and I was
allowed to turn one, but stupidly began by turning
it the wrong way ; so as much as I had turned had
to be quickly undone and then I made up for it
by turning a good deal more the proper way. That

IN THE HIMALAYAS ^7

quite put matters right, especially when I repeated
after them, '' Om Mani Mani/'

I wanted to make a sketch of the ugliest one, but
he ran away and hid in his cell and could not be got
out, much to the amusement of his brother monks.
I made a sketch of him afterwards from memory,
and some of the others sat for me and did not seem
to mind for how long they sat. We tried to buy
from them different little relics that we saw, but
they were quite determined against that, on no
account might we take anything away with us.
We offered more rupees, but it was of no use. To
our surprise after dark one after another of them
came steaUng into the mess tent : they came singly
and each brought some treasure with him. The
cook brought a short whip, the one he used for his
donkey, mounted in brass, and with a bunch of
small leather thongs on it. I bought a very much
dented holy water bottle and a copper spoon, and
Ned some other things; but the greatest treasure
was a small copper box with a glass window in front
of it, and clips to pass a strap through so that it
could be worn on the arm. This contained the
ashes of a Lama made up into the form of a Buddha,
and wrapped round most carefully in a dirty piece
of yellow cloth and tied with a long silk string.
We both wanted this, of course, and Ned was bidding
for the image while I bid for the box. After the
deal was over and all the monks gone, Ned said it
was stupid of the red monk to sell the image without
the box. I thought it was still more stupid to sell
the box without the image. We settled that they

88 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

could not be separated and that the image must
certainly be put back in its box. Then whose was
it to be ? So to make it fair we tossed and I won,
and I have the curious little relic now; but some
one told me it was wrong to keep it and that it
ought by rights to go back to Rangdum. If it is
of real value to the Lamas and they come and ask
for it they may have it back.

Both the shikaris were ill here, and Ned had a bad
foot, so we had to sit quiet for some days. There
was nothing to do but shoot a few marmots, as we
wanted some of their skins. I had to go rather far
away for my shooting, as Ned could only hobble
about near camp, and spent his time in sketching
and going about with his small rifle into his
'' preserves '' ; he preserved marmots for a dis-
tance of two hundred yards round the camp, where
I might not shoot. I shot a goose one day which
fell into the river, but we had not come all these
long marches, on to ibex ground, to shoot marmots
and a bit of poultry, and we were really disappointed
at everything going so wrong.

As soon as every one had sufficiently recovered to
march again we went over the Pense La. Many
more coolies than were required came to take the
loads and we were going to send some of them away,
when Aziz Khan, our cook, told us that the people
were so unaccustomed to any sahib stopping there,
it was a great treat for them to have loads to carry !
The whole village seemed to have turned out, so
each load was divided into as many small ones as
possible and men and women started off with

IN THE HIMALAYAS 89

them, and tiny children carried the gun cases
along.

Aziz Khan had caught somebody's little pony for
me to ride; he was very clever in knowing what
was safe snow to cross and what not. We had
crossed several snow bridges, and then came to one
that he quite refused to go over. He stopped, put
his nose down to it and smelt about. I stupidly
tried to force him on, but he still refused it, put his
head down and nosed it again until I pushed him
at it. He went on one step and then the whole
thing broke through with him and he fell over on
to some rocks below, which luckily were not far
down. His fore legs were high up against the rocks
and he was standing on his hind legs almost upright.
I tumbled off and rolled against his hind legs, that
I had to pull myself up by. He stood absolutely
still till I had got clear of him and then he scrambled
up the rocks. He was very much frightened, but
he behaved wonderfully well; and after that I left
everything to his better judgment.

We crossed the Bhot Kol pass again on the way
back ; it had been covered with snow when we came
and was straightforward marching, but now that
was melted and all the walking was on the glacier.
It was a very rough road and there were any amount
of crevasses that we had to circumvent or jump over.
On the top, as we were sitting down for a rest, a
long string of men with their half-bred Yaks, carry-
ing loads, passed us. They stopped to talk to our
men, aU except one of them who went on alone a

90 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

short way. We heard a muffled cry and then
indistinct shouts for help, and when we looked the
man had disappeared. All the men jumped up and
ran in the direction of the cries, stopping and peering
down every crevasse that they passed. They found
the missing man had fallen down a crack in the ice,
and the big load that he had strapped on to his back,
prevented his going more than a few feet down;
without this, they said, he must have fallen to the
bottom. Some of the men knelt down holding on
to each other, and one man, lying down, was just
able to reach him and hold on while his load was
unfastened, and they pulled that up first and then
himself. It was a relief to every one when he stood
on firm ground once more.

After that they continued their journey and we
noticed how extremely carefully they went. It
certainly made us more cautious in avoiding rotten
snow and not skipping over so many crevasses as
we had been doing. Bunker, too, was tied with a
stout strap.

Then there came bad weather again and more
bad weather, and so much thick cloud and mist
that we could see nothing, and this went on until
the leave was up. We had scarcely fired a shot and
the only things in the bag were, I think, one red
bear and a barah singh stag.

We were once in the Himalayas after that; my
husband, sister and I went into Tilail one hot
weather. They were both very busy with their
cameras, and I must say they made better shooting
with them than I did with my rifle. They made

IN THE HIMALAYAS 91

some extremely pretty snapshots, with flocks of
sheep and goats in the foreground, but then, after
all, they were shooting into the brown !

The shikaris had seen some ibex one evening and
said there were some big ones among the herd —
though I never happened to see a good head in
Tilail — and I settled to go after them. Nebra, the
shikari, two coohes and I started next morning soon
after four, and walked for a long way up the Gujrind
nullah. After we had climbed for some hours
Nebra saw a distant herd of ibex feeding quietly
above us on a far hill. He said he thought they
were too far away to go after, and we certainly
should never arrive at them that day — he did not
add at my pace, but he looked it ! In the middle
of the herd there was a very noticeable white kael
who stood out among his khaki-coloured brethren.
This rather stirred us up to try, as the coolies said
it would bring us all enormous luck, if we could
shoot a white kael, no one having seen such a thing
before. We determined to have a try for him any-
how, and climbed up and up, over very rough
ground, running whenever we got a chance and
creeping along when we had to cross an open place
where we might be seen, and wearing out our grass
shoes, which soon got cut through and we had to
change for others.

When we arrived above the level of the herd we
saw them on the snow and among the rocks pre-
paring to Ue down, and Nebra said we must wait
too, and watch. It was one o'clock and I was very
glad to sit down and have a rest ; I ate my breakfast

92 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

and several helpings of snow, as the long climb had
been thirsty work and we had not come across any
water on the way up. I went to sleep and Nebra
said he would wake me up as soon as the herd moved
on again and there seemed a favourable chance for
beginning the stalk. I hoped the ibex would all
lie down and keep on lying down for several hours,
so that I might have a good rest, but the demons
were all up and feeding again in half an hour, and
as soon as they had disappeared over the next ridge
on we had to go again.

We were getting nearer and we all were growing
keen. The going was rather easier, as there was
more downhill than up, and we followed, climbing
ridge after ridge, running or creeping along or lying
down according to the accidents of the ground —
anything to avoid being seen. We followed until
we came to what was almost a precipice ; there was
nothing in the way of cover between us and the kael^
and we could not move another yard without being
seen. They were loafing or lying about below;
sometimes two of the rams would have a sham
fight and batter each other's heads : we could
hear their horns rattle together. They were over
two hundred yards away, though it is very difficult
to judge distance across a valley, and when I put
up the rifle the white ibex looked smaller than the
bead. We saw no chance of getting any nearer
and, as evening was coming on, we had to think of
getting back or staying there for the night.

I told Nebra I would shoot; he looked rather
doubtful and did not seem to think I should make

IN THE HIMALAYAS 93

much of it. He said, after the manner of the
East, '' If it's hit it's hit, if it's not hit it's not hit;
a matter of luck ! "

I tried to sit on a bit of precipice to steady myself ;
one coolie held my feet and Nebra propped me up
as I fired the '303 rifle. The white ibex and another
one were lying close together with their noses nearly
touching, and the bullet splashed up the dust
between them. I fired another shot or two at the
white kael as he moved off, with no apparent result,
and they all disappeared round rocks.

We all thought I had made clean misses and we
started at once to find a path and scramble down,
making for camp, when we heard a stone falUng
from above us; the white ibex stood looking at us
five or six hundred yards away. Nebra said he
would never stay there alone when the others had
all gone if he had not been hit. I fired again and
he took no notice of the shot, which of course did
not hit him, but struck a rock near. He soon
afterwards lay down.

I felt as if I could not climb another yard, at any
rate uphill, so Nebra took the rifle to go up and
finish him, and I started for home, down a nasty
steep side of hill, taking the coolie Ahmedu with me.
Soon after starting I found my grass shoes had worn
completely through, and the spare ones that we
had brought with us had been taken off by the man
that Nebra had with him. It was poor consolation
to think that they were all dangling to his waist,
not far distant. The two or three pairs of socks I
was wearing gradually wore themselves into large

94 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

holes, which made walking rather painful. We
had nearly reached the bottom of the valley when
we came to some slippery rocks over which water
was trickling; Ahmedu said it was impossible to
get up or down to avoid them, and they were also
impossible to cross. It was now getting so dark
there was no time to retrace our steps and find out
a new road. He sat down, burst into tears and
sobbed in despair. I thought I could see a way
down, but he would not move from the spot; he
said he was afraid of what Nebra would say to him,
and if anything happened to me his eyes would
burst and be washed away in his tears !

So we sat down and prepared to stay there for the
night, which would have been very chilly and un-
comfortable, but by great luck we caught sight, in
the dusk, of the pony man below us bringing the
pony up the main nullah to fetch me. We made
plenty of noise then, whistling and shouting to
attract his attention. He tied the pony to a bush
and ran up to us with as much ease as if he were
running along a high-road, and showed us another
way down which was quite simple, and where he
only thought it necessary to hold my feet in a few
places, though he said it was worse climbing down
than going up.

I did look forward to getting a mount and saving
the last remnants of sock and skin left under my
feet, but the rascally pony had jerked his reins free
and gone off. It was now quite dark and there was
still some distance to go. We fell in with Nebra
and Mirza Khan with the grass shoes; they had got

IN THE HIMALAYAS 95

into difficulties too and twice had to turn back on
their road, but they would go and bring the kael
in next day. And then came my husband to meet
me, with a lantern and brandy, and also the pony,
that they had found on the way, grazing by the
roadside and enjoying himself, and the troubles were
over. I know I slept without winking from 10 p.m.
to 10.45 ^•^- ^^xt day, which wasn't so bad, but
I was not able to walk for some days.

Nebra brought back the head and skin of the
white ibex. He only had one horn, so he must
have lost it in a fall or Nebra may have shot it off ;
to which he did not own, however, but the kael
certainly had two horns when I saw him last.

The skin was made into quite a handsome carriage
rug : a panther skin in the middle with borders of
long woolly white kael outside. It was said, by
some faddy people, to smell very strong, and had
to be discarded, as no one would get into the car
with it but me, and I Uked it.

I shot one or two ibex and bear on this expedition,
and then our leave was up. On the way back,
when we were in boats on the Woolar Lake, one day
a very large fish was brought in by the cook, which
he displayed with great pride; we said we would
have it for dinner. But after our soup the meat
was brought next, so we shouted to him to know
what had happened to the fish.

** The fish, sahib ? Why, the fish is such a big one,
it is the joint dish to-day, so I have sent the sahibs
the bif ishteak first."

We knew that no beef was killed where we were.

96 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

and we asked him where he got his beef from, for
the steak?

He thought we were rather stupid.

**Bif ishteak? Oh, I cut them off the leg of
mutton of course ! ''

^

VII

BUNKER

THESE are only reminiscences of a dog and
probably only of interest to my husband and
me, who were so fond of him.
His mother was a large, fat, in fact, outsize fox
terrier, very healthy, with superabundant spirits.
She did not look very well bred — fat Betty — but
what of that ! she loved Ufe just the same and
she also loved everybody. Bunker was one of a
litter of brothers and sisters, who had been given
away, and I suppose he was last choice; but we
would not have exchanged Bunker for anything in
the world. He was given to us when he was a few
months old, and Betty came too, to be taken
care of when her master went on leave. Bunker
was distinctly a better-looking class of dog than his
mother and may have had an aristocrat for his
father, but he never told us so.

Along the road just outside the bungalow there
was a ditch which was daily flushed with water. In
this Betty used to gambol and Bunker fioimdered
after her. She used to rush at her little pup, knock
him over, drench him, half punch the wind out of
him and he would get up a pitiable little object.
The first time that it happened he seemed thoroughly

H 97

98 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

amazed and stood gasping, but he soon began to
understand it was a game and prepared for the
onslaught. I suppose he learnt to enjoy it, for he
always followed his mother when she went for her mud
bath and they tumbled and splashed about together.
We told Betty to be more gentle with him, but she
was silly and did not understand. Some dogs don't.

They followed us when we went on the golf
course, and of course Bunker was always in the way
— I believe bunkers are — thence his name.

We never knew whether he liked music or not,
but one evening some soldiers came in for a sing-
song, and a friend had kindly promised to help.
•She opened her music and started a rather high-
class sentimental song. Bunker was sitting thinking
of nothing, alone, in the middle of a large circle of
Tommies. Then the singer, who really sang very
nicely, reached a high and rather loud note. The
puppy came to attention, set his little head on one
side, then raised it, and gave vent to a series of long,
lugubrious howls. He brought down the house, he
had the undivided attention of all the men and the
singer was nowhere. I must say she was most
good-natured about it.

Bunker was stung by a scorpion when he was
rather older; he came and told me something was
wrong with his foot, and as the scorpion was marked
down, we soon guessed what was the matter. I put
on ammonia to try and help him, and when the
place was dressed and he put his poor nose to the
foot he went nearly wild, tore about the room and
did all he could to get away from himself and the

BUNKER 99

horrible sharp smell. The remedy was much worse
than the disease, the pain of which soon eased off.

Bunker came up with my brother Ned and me to
Kashmir and Suru. We went rather far afield, and
some bits of the marches were so bad he had to be
carried over dangerous places and up rickety short
ladders which made the path passable. He was
greatly interested in hunting marmots. We shot
a few for their skins, and he retrieved several
wounded ones from their holes. He would go down
their burrows into the depths of the earth, and I
have spent many anxious hours, on occasions,
sitting at the mouth of a burrow whistUng and
calling, and hearing, when I put my ear down to the
hole, muffled, far-distant barks. Once or twice I
could hear^ nothing, and thought that Bunker must
be buried for ever. But he always turned up in the
end, generally with a scratched face, tail foremost,
dragging a dead marmot after him.

He had ideas of his own, for one day we were
preparing to start on a march, and Ned and I with
the shikaris and guns were going on ahead. We
soon found out there was no dog with us, which
was surprising, as when Bunker saw a gun he simply
must be with it. I went back and saw him sitting
calmly watching the servants pack the loads. I
called him, and he took not the slightest notice. I
went up to him, scolded him, and dragged him by
his collar a little way. Nothing would move him
but force. I reasoned with him. No, he was quite
determined he would not come. Then, as one must
have obedience in dogs, I looked about for a stick,

100 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

a soft one, but we were above tree level and there
were no sticks available. I found a coolie's load
rope and pretended to beat him, but he did not care
for me and my rope, only looked at me seriously
and kindly, as it were — I am sure he was thinking I
was rather a fool not to understand — so I gave it
up as a bad job, went on, and left him to it. After
my brother and I had gone a mile or two, he came
racing along to catch us up, quite rejoicing, with his
tail up, feehng sure he had done nothing wrong.

We asked Aziz Khan, our Pathan cook, what had
happened, and he told us Bunker sat on until the
last coolie had picked up the last load and started.
Then he was satisfied, and tore away after us. This
he continued to do daily, or whenever we changed
camp. But he was only a dog, bless him !

Bunker's luggage consisted of two jhuls and a bit
of rug to lie on. He certainly needed them all at
night when we were up in the snows — and, by the
way, the first time he ever saw snow on the ground
he gazed at it in astonishment ; picked up a forefoot
and set it down in the snow most cautiously, bit at
it, and then went mad for joy, racing round and
round in circles and rolling over and over.

To come back to his jhuls , he was nearly drowned
on account of one. We were on the Jhelum river,
living in dungas, rather dirty boats which at even-
tide generally smelt very strongly of onions, a self-
evident part of the crew's evening meal. They
cooked it in the stern, and the wind invariably blew
towards our part of the ship. We tied up at night
to the bank with a plank to cross over to the shore.

BUNKER loi

Bunker slept in my boat, and I was wakened one
night by sounds of splashing and sad little yelps of
something in distress. I jumped out of bed and
tried to look over the side, but could see nothing in
the black darkness, but guided by the sound of
splashing, I made out something struggUng in the
water, almost submerged. It was Bunker, tangled
up in his jhill, half drowning, and trying to claw at
the sUppery sides of the boat. I reached down over
the low side and managed to drag up the dripping,
shivering, gasping thing.

I suppose he had occasion to go ashore, and had
missed his footing on the plank on his way. After
striking a light, I took off his jhill and rubbed him
down; but it was a truly grievous thing to find
that he had fallen in in his best jhuly which had,
for some nonsense of ours, his crest and monogram
on it, worked in gold thread by my kind and skilful
sister. I told him he must be more careful, but
when he was rubbed dry, and had his second-best
coat on, he did not seem to trouble much.

Once we came across a party of monkeys that
greatly excited Bunker and he them. He drove
them up trees at first, but they grew bolder, came
down and went for him, until we managed to call
him off. Then early one morning he stole away,
and I suppose he had a great hunt and a scrap with
the monkeys all to himself. We missed him and
could find no trace of him anywhere for a whole
day and night, and then he returned covered with
wounds and scratches and with only a few old rags
of his jhul hanging round his neck. This time,

102 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

fortunately, it was his old jhul. We never knew
what had happened, but only supposed he had been
attacked by the monkeys and had torn himself
away.

Ned and I were held up in the Chota Zajnai
nullah for five or six solid days and nights by inces-
sant rain and low cloud and mist. The ground
was soaking, the bedding damp and cold; our
clothes were all clammy and we were thoroughly
uncomfortable. Our little mess tent had to be
nearly closed to keep out the weather. Bunker
was not at his best and did not, I am sorry to say,
smell of the sweetest, and Ned would persist in
caUing him '* Vinolia.''

One afternoon, after several days of such dis-
comfort, we were trying to enjoy our tea, when a
flutter was heard and something tumbled into the
tent and fell with a bump at our feet, and we saw
lying there a small hawk, drenched and incapaci-
tated by weather, that had been driven in by a gust
of wind. Of course Bunker was first in the field,
but was cautioned not to touch it, and we picked up
the bird and smoothed out his feathers. He showed
no fight and only made futile pecks at our fingers
after he had been fed with crumbs. Having no
caste to forbid it, he did not show any disinclination
to tea being spooned into his mouth by the hands
of a white man. We packed him up warmly in a
basket and the next day he seemed fairly recovered.
We tied a string to his leg, but he did not try to
get away. When the sun came out once more, it
looked so funny to see him sitting outside gazing at

BUNKER 103

the dog and the dog a yard or two away gazing
back. They did not quite know what to make of
each other. He lived with us for three days and
then, again at tea-time, Ned gave him an overdose
of cake, and he died in the night. Next day Ned
sat for a long time carving a memorial stone giving
a history of the hawk's death, and this was set up
over his grave. I wonder if it stands there still.

Bunker had a happy life, I think. He and the
other dogs were very fond of coming out with us
riding, but small game shooting was the thing, par
excellence, in which he delighted. When he grew
older, he would refuse to go riding when the sun was
too hot for him; but when we went shooting and
rode out, he invariably came. I could not make
out how he understood whether it was just an
ordinary ride or a shoot that we were starting on
until I saw him go and smell my clothes, which were
laid out overnight. Long boots were no good, but
boots and putties or high-laced boots were all right ;
other details, too, in coats or skirts, were all known
to him. Then he grew wiser still and would trot
off with the shikari who went on long before dawn,
when it was beautifully cool, with the guns, and
Bunker would be sitting waiting for us when we
arrived. The other dogs never thought that out,
and would stay to run with us. Some of them
were rather wild occasionally, and did as much
harm as good, putting up many quail out of shot,
but there were always plenty more; and, on the
other hand, the dogs found us many birds lost in the
long grass that the cooUes never would have found.

104 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

Bunker was a real retriever, but Bumps, the
spaniel, was not so good. One day we all saw a bird
fall, and several men had a long hunt for it at the
spot, but it could not be found. Bumps was busy
working away at a small hole in a boundary hillock
twenty yards or more distant. I suggested we
should look there, but the coolies were certain that
would be useless. However, I made them come
and open out the hole with their sticks. After
digging down, with Bumps (who would not stop
scratching) very much in their way, they came on
the quail. Their look of astonishment was amusing.
Shabash, bravo ! They had never seen such a
wonderful dog in their lives !

When the dog-cart came to pick us up, there was
a glorious scramble of dogs waiting to be lifted up
to avoid the nasty hot run home in the sun.

Poor Bunker ! I lost him one evening riding
over open country with some low scrub, and, as
often happened, we found a jackal and had a bit
of a run, though jackal or fox would invariably get
away. We lost our jack and I turned to come home,
the dogs following. I soon noticed that Bunker
was missing, so I turned again to look for him,
whistUng and calling. It was no use; there was
no sign of him. It was growing quite dark and I
gave it up, but expected him to turn up every
minute. We went out over the same ground in the
morning but could find no trace of him; and of
course we told the poUce and made all inquiries
and did everything in our power to find him.

He was missing for nearly a week. Then one of

BUNKER 105

the servants told us an old woman belonging to
the Lomani tribe of gipsies had been seen taking
him away, and that these gipsies were encamped
in their funny ragged little tents eight or nine miles
away. We went off to the D.S.P., who very kindly
sent mounted police out at once. They found out
nothing definite, but probably frightened the Lomani
people, for shortly afterwards the servants, who
were standing at the gates of the compound, saw
a stupid-looking dog come trotting along the road,
taking no notice of them or anything else. They
brought him up to me seeming dazed and stupefied,
and he lay down at my feet showing no sign of
pleasure, and he did not respond when I spoke to
him. His body was greatly distended as if he had
been overfed on garbage. Also we supposed he had
been severely drugged to prevent his running away.
He had sense enough left to make his way home
when he was loosed, and delighted we were to see
him.

Bunker knew something bad was going to happen
to him when we had to go home on leave. Some
friends had very kindly promised to look after him
and we knew he would have a happy home. I
started in a train in advance of my husband and the
little dog was brought to see me off. He jumped
into the carriage and lay down in a far corner under
the seat. We called to him, but nothing would
induce him to come out. I crawled underneath
and he set his feet firmly to resist me. I nearly,
very nearly, brought him along. My husband took
him away.

io6 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

We afterwards heard that as soon as we left him
he was ill and refused to eat, though he was grateful
for all the attentions showered on him, and he died
after a few weeks.

He has a small slab over him near the Soldiers'
Hospital at Deolali, only they have carved his name
" Bunk/r " !

VIII

SOME BEARS IN SATARA

THERE was a shikari, a very old man, by name
Esuf, who hved near Satara, and who came
to me a good many times to persuade me to
go out with him to shoot black bears. The time to
shoot them, he said, was in the rains. It is not
particularly pleasant being in camp then ; and I was
doubtful, too, about his khubber and put him off
several times. But he was persistent and was quite
pleased when at last I settled to go. He started off
ahead with four mules loaded with kit, and I followed,
riding where I could, and letting the horse climb after
me where the path was too bad, up to a jungly place
at the top of some hills.

I found my tent was pitched in front of a long,
wide, three-mouthed cavern which gave capital
shelter for horses and servants. The ground was
mostly bare sheet rock, so the tent ropes had to be
tied to large heavy stones that the coolies rolled up.
The cavern belonged to Deo, and his image was
carved inside, where it was rather cold and damp, as
it was the rainy season; but when rain was falling
heavily I found it convenient and sheltered to use
one of the entrances as my dining-room.

Esuf's plan for getting bears was to take some

107

io8 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

cowmen and villagers with him and go out before
dawn to watch the hills; they would then see any
bears there might be coming back from their night^s
feeding grounds, and could mark them down in the
place they chose to lie up in to sleep for the day;
and when marked down he would let me know where
I was to join him. I went out at sunrise next
morning and found Esuf coming back. He said
they had found the pugs of a bear, though they had
not seen the bear himself; he, Esuf, was just going
down into some scrub tp pug him up, and I was to
wait at the top. The ground was very wet, so the
men could see the tracks plainly on the grass; but
it was an hour or two before they sent for me. They
wanted to give him time to settle down fairly to
sleep before he was disturbed.

When I got near the place Esuf said the bear was
lying under some thick bushes, sound asleep, and he
asked me if I should like the men to beat him out
or if I would walk him up. They talked in such
very loud whispers that if the bear had been as near
as the men said he must have heard us. The scrub
he was lying in was extremely thick and heavy and
would have been very difficult to beat him out of,
so I settled to walk him up, and told Esuf to take
me above him if he could. That did not seem pos-
sible, as we had to follow closely in the pugs they had
already tracked. Esuf, Nana — a big man in a
bright red waistcoat — and I went a few hundred yards
through dripping bushes which grew so thick and
low we could no longer walk the bear up, so we
crawled him up. Nana knew just where he lay, so

SOME BEARS IN SATARA 109

he crawled first and then stopped and pointed to a
black mass about eight yards away and sUghtly
above us. It lay so still I thought it was a log of
wood I was looking at, but Nana pointed again at
it. It was cloudy and extraordinarily dark under
these thick bushes considering the time of day —
ten o'clock or so. I whispered to know which way
his head was, and Nana could not tell. I crawled
about and tried to find a clear spot where I could
see to shoot through any opening in the bushes.
Esuf and Nana held some branches back out of the
way as I held my rifle ready ; I thought I had better
not waste any more time trying to find out which
way the bear was lying and I fancied I saw two green
eyes looking at me, but they may have been green
leaves. I shot off and the black mass roared, rolled
over and then jumped up. I fired again and this
time the bear went over for good, though as he
tried once or twice to get up I put another bullet
in him.

All the men came pushing their way through the
bushes and there was much salaaming. One of
the village patels held my hand to lead me out into
the open — forcing a way for me through the under-
growth— which I found was a curious custom of
theirs in these parts after any great event. Nana
was very angry at this and sent the patel off with a
good useful push : he had been the man to show me
the bear ; it was his place to lead me out, and he did
this with much ceremony.

The bear was both heavy and fat and the cook
boiled down some of the fat and made a fine lot of

no DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

bear's grease, which is very useful for cleaning and
keeping the guns in order. The Collector had been
good enough to send word to the local people to
help me, and the Kulkani arrived with a small
following. He was the spokesman of the party and
made a speech in English which he must have pre-
pared for the occasion.

He said he lived a mile or two away, but as long
as I stayed there he would stay there too. We talked
for some time and watched the skinning, and when
I thought we had exhausted our conversation I
said :

" If you have anything of importance to do now
at home you need not stay any longer.'' He said,
*' No, my only pleasure is to stay with you ! " I
felt sorry for him, as evidently he was very much
bored at having to stay there according to orders,
and life could not have contained many charms for
him if this was all. But he fortunately added :
** But if your Majesty will allow I will go for one hour
to take my food." My Majesty let him.

We went out early next day for some miles along
the hill-tops, but saw nothing. Esuf said that we
had better stay there for the day, and then watch
for the bears to come out in the evening ; so he sent
back to camp for some food and bustled me into a
cave to eat breakfast, as it came on to rain. He was
rather pleased to see the rain, as he said the aswol
would come out to feed all the sooner, and he
stationed men to watch the hills from various points.
Early in the afternoon a man signalled that there was
a bear in the bushes close to the top of the hill, and

SOME BEARS IN SATARA iii

another man up a small tree waved his black blanket,
which for a second I thought was the aswoL Esuf,
with bare feet, and I, in cotton soles, crept along,
up to our knees in long thick grass and overgrown
weeds, and saw the bear facing us at a short distance,
and I got him without trouble. I only mention all
this because of the sequel. As we were going home,
Esuf said I was wearing a ring on my finger as we
went out and it was now gone. The men looked
in the place I breakfasted as we passed, but it was
not there. Esuf said that I must have flung it off
as I threw away the empty cartridge cases, which
I did in a hurry, to load up again quickly in case the
bear might have Hfe enough to come for us. One
or two of the men went back to look, but it seemed
a hopeless place in which to find such a small thing
as a ring, in all that long grass and tangle, that I
then thought no more about the matter, except that
I said there would be some rupees for any one who
found it.

Next morning the whole village was sitting round
doing nothing but watch the skinning operations,
when I happened to remember the ring, and said
the men that were idle might as well look for it as sit
there. Nobody stirred; and as the idea of rupees
generally moves them they evidently thought there
was no chance of finding it. However, at last the
chaprassi took some men off with him to make a
search and they came back with the ring. They
had looked about in the grass near the spot where
the bear was shot and were giving it up as a bad
job, when one man happened to turn over a large

112 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

stone and out crawled two big snakes. On the ground
between their two heads lay the ring. There was
so much grass growing round, and the space between
the stones was so small, that the chaprassi said it
was impossible for me to have thrown the ring into
this crack, and that the snakes must have taken
their treasure there. Both the snakes were killed
as soon as they were seen ; but it was rather a curious
incident.

Before we left that camp I went into the cavern,
which was a place of worship, to examine the carved
stones, of which there were a good many. Esuf said
we certainly ought to give Deo something before
leaving. I agreed, felt in my pockets, and was
amused to hear him say :

" Eight annas (about eightpence) will be enough ! "

He called to the patel and gave instructions as
to what he was to buy to lay at the Deo's feet :
coco-nut, to the extent of one anna, and I forget
the other things, but he looked inquiringly at me to
see if I agreed to each separate item ; and it seemed
to be a matter of some importance although it was
not costly.

Esuf often came with me shooting after that,
though he could not always make such good arrange-
ments. We tried for a tiger a good many times in
the cold weather, but had no luck. One time a cow
had been seized close to a village and the tiger had
been driven off before much harm had been done
to it ; it had only a few claw-marks on the shoulder.
Esuf sent a coolie in to Satara to tell me to come out
at once : he thought the tiger would be sure to come

SOME BEARS IN SATARA 113

that night as he was hungry enough to venture so
near the village, and as there was a full moon it was
a good opportunity.

I rode out and got to the place about sundown.
There were no preparations of any sort made where
I could sit hidden, and there was no tree anywhere
about, but Esuf was there waiting with the cow that
had escaped the tiger and which her owners had
given to be tied up again; I suppose they thought
she would be sure to die and she might as well be of
use first. I asked Esuf where I was to sit for the
night, as the cow was tied up on a flat piece of open
ground some little way from the village; he said
he left that to my discretion. I looked about and,
as I could see nothing better, chose a spot on the side
of a hill thirty yards from the bait, wondering much
from which direction the tiger might come and if
I should suddenly find him behind me, looking over
my shoulder. I was in shadow for some time, under
a rock, though there was such a beautiful moon, and
it was an interesting night as long as I could manage
to keep awake, though the tiger never came near,
to my knowledge.

I had many fruitless journeys from the top of the
Mahableshwar hill to the bottom for a beat or a sit
up, sometimes all night; and it was rather hard
work and generally done in a great rush, as khubber
was so late coming in. I spent ten days occasionally
at the bottom of the hill and then the tiger would
be sure to be at the top, which was rather tantalizing ;
but a panther came to the Government House
grounds and killed one night, and another to the

114 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

home preserves, and they played the game, and were
shot under the easiest circumstances imaginable.

They were both very thieving panthers and had
stolen many of the cattle and goats on the hill. I
received a note to say that a calf had been killed
close to Government House and, as there was no
one there at the time to shoot it, would I come?
I went to see the place, which was close to the tennis
grounds. A cow, in trying to save her calf, had
been badly mauled by the panther and had escaped,
but was so badly hurt she was now in a dying condi-
tion, and her calf had been killed and half eaten;
the head and shoulders remaining were dragged
some little way and hidden under bushes. I
arranged where the machan was to be put, which
was in a very small tree, there being no big ones near ;
they fixed it only a few feet from the ground and much
lower than I intended.

I went out at four o'clock and took up my position
in this rather lowly seat, where I could almost have
touched a panther coming up to the kill with the
end of the rifle, though I was fairly well hidden from
anything below by leaves and thick bushes. There
were a good many people, gardeners, coolies and
water-carriers, working and walking to and fro only
fifty yards away — they were talking loudly and
caUing to each other at their work; there was a
creaking of carts and barrows and I was prepared
to wait for a couple of hours when they would leave
olf work and things would quiet down. All this
noise did not seem to worry the panther, however,
for very soon, and to my surprise, he appeared

SOME BEARS IN SATARA 115

walking softly up to the kill below me. I heard
some extra loud shouts, so did he, and he turned to
listen. I shifted my position quietly as I put up
the rifle. In doing so I knocked it against a small
branch and made a slight noise, which he heard and
looked up instantly. He saw me, started and
jumped away and was turning to go off when I
pulled the rifle on him and snapped. He disappeared
with a big bound over a bush and into thick stuff
where I could not see him, but there were sounds
of snarUng, and I thought I heard him rolling about.
He tried to get up and I saw his spots through the
leaves and fired at him again. The workpeople
and a whole crowd from the bazaar all swarmed up
and were running on to the top of him before they
knew if he was alive or dead, and one man among
them was holding up a tape measure, all ready to
measure him on the spot ! It was all I could do to
keep them back, as they were making such a din
and clamour they could not hear me shouting at
them.

They got to within a yard or two of him while
I was unable to see him, and he certainly would
have been on them if there had been any hfe left
in him. So I fired another shot at the spot where I
thought he lay and jumped down with the rifle
ready ; but he was stone dead.

The man with the yard measure made him out a
very fine panther of seven feet ; and I ought to have
left it at that, as I could not find the elastic part of
his tape, which in my hands could not be made to
stretch more than 6 ft. 5 in.

ii6 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

All this happened in brilliant sunshine and I was
back in the bungalow by five o^clock. On the way
home a large langur monkey saw the panther, his
natural enemy, being carried along underneath the tree
in which he was sitting. He got very much excited
and angry and began to chatter and swear at him,
and he kept pace with the procession, in which a lot
of other monkeys joined; they came along swinging
themselves overhead from tree to tree for quite
half a mile, using violent language all the way
home.

The second occasion was when on the way to
church one Sunday morning the church servant met
me with beaming smiles. He said that a calf,
belonging to the baker, had been killed and dragged
through the church compound and over a little wall,
under which he now lay. He had the first news of it,
so it was clearly our panther. I went to see, and a
small half -eat en calf lay, as he said, just under the
wall that divided the church compound from that
of a bungalow. Servants' houses were within a
few yards of the spot, and I went to ask leave from
the owner of the bungalow to put up my machan
in one of her trees. She allowed me to do it, but said
it was no use going to sit up till ten o'clock as the
servants would be going backwards and forwards
bringing dinner, and continually passing with lights,
besides there being a glow from the cook-house fire.
I went in the evening to see if the machan was put
up properly, and arranged and lighted a shaded
lantern exactly over the kill. Two men were set
to watch if the panther came, and keep him off

SOME BEARS IN SATARA 117

if he did come, until I arrived. They did not watch,
and when I went about nine or ten o'clock, I found
that he had already been and had moved the carcase
from under the rays of the lantern. It was a great
wonder that he had not taken it away altogether.
We found it only a few yards away, and I told the
men to drag it back under the lamp, making as much
noise as possible, to show the panther there was no
deception. They were glad to be able to talk loudly,
and there was great shouting and clearing of throats
too, as they thought the panther was probably in
the near vicinity ; Mt was a relief to me as well to
talk, as I wished to use a little forcible language at
once to the two coolies who were told to keep watch
and had so nearly spoiled everything.

The remains of the calf being replaced, I climbed
up into my tree and the men went noisily away, the
cook-house fire was put out and the doors of the
servants' houses were closed. Soon there was a rustle
among the dead leaves on the ground, then there
was stillness for an hour or more. The next thing
I heard was the rattle of a loose stone on the wall and
something sprang over. After a short pause the
panther walked up to the kill. He looked round
cautiously on all sides, then put his nose down on to
the calf to begin his much-delayed dinner. The
gun went up and he went down, sinking very slowly,
like the dying hero on the stage. I was shooting
with slugs out of the 20-bore gun, and fired both
barrels almost simultaneously at his head.

Mrs. R. was hustled out of her bed to see the
panther, and the baker, who claimed part ownership

ii8 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

in him — it was his calf that had been killed — asked
to be allowed to drive it back in his victoria, which
he had kept there ready, to the bungalow, where we
arrived about midnight.

I beUeve there were all sorts of yarns going about
the station after this, such as — *' During evening
service at about half-time, the padre paused and said,
* We must now bring the service to a close. I see
it is drawing near sunset and the panther may soon
be expected; so it is requested that, under the
circumstances, the congregation shall retire quietly
and disperse as quickly as possible so as not to alarm
the animal should he be near.' "

Sultan, an ex-policeman, who had often been out
shooting with me in this district, came into the
bungalow at Satara one day to see the skins. He was
a very knowledgeable man in jungle matters and I
was much interested in seeing him point out the
differences at once in the leopard skins that were
hanging on the walls, and giving histories of where
each one lived. There were three sorts there, he
said, of identically the same animal (panther and
leopard being, of course, two names for the same
animal), which only varied under the conditions in
which they lived. ** This,*' pointing to a big one
with short fine hair, *' does not live in the forest at
all : he is only to be found in hot open places where
there is no shade, especially bare rocky hills, and he
grows to a great size. He is called kerkia, or kerka
biboa.*' This was so, a pa#ither shot in the Ahmed-
nagar district. *' That one " — another big one shot
in Kanara — " is extraordinarily stealthy, he never

SOME BEARS IN SATARA 119

lets himself be seen and keeps hidden in the jungle.
You can only see him when he moves. He is asni
or asna biboa, or ashna bibta. The others are all
ordinary biboa, and are generally smallish, the kind
that live about here."

Another shikari, Rama, of Mahan, told me their
names but did not point out their differences ; ashna
bibta, duita bibta, karri bibta, and ushia bagh,

I was sitting over a kill one evening when two wild
dogs came. The men told me afterwards that they
were called kuliss or kulissra, and that they were not
wild dogs, but I am pretty sure they were. The
shikari told me a curious story about them, which
was, *' All animals are afraid of kulissra, even tigers,
which they can kill, and this is how they set about
it. When they prepare to attack, first of all they
stale, and wet and rub their bushy tails in this, then
several of them go up together to a tiger or panther
and swish their tails into his eyes : this smarts and
blinds him, then all the kuliss can go safely in and
rend him." The Ranger said he had seen kulissra
tearing up a panther who could not get away because
he could not see which way he was going and seemed
quite helpless.

IX

A CHAPTER OF NOTHINGS

I HAD left my little companion and friend,
Fretful Fanny, in the care of Captain Short at
Poona, who had promised to take care of her
for me when we left India, and on coming out again
after a year and a half I went there to take her back,
and found she had changed hands and was at Kirki.
I went up to her stable and stood looking at her for
a minute to see if she would take any notice of me.
She did not seem to know me, so I went into the box
and spoke to her ; she looked round at once and came
up and licked my hand and then lifted a fore foot,
holding it out for me to take : it was a trick that she
had taught herself and a thing she always did whenever
I went into her stable with lucerne grass or anything
nice to eat. The syce had just come up and I said,
** The mare still shakes hands then when you or the
sahib goes up to her ? *' He said, No, that he had
never seen her shake hands before and they had no
notion that she ever did it. But I was very much
pleased to get such a warm welcome from her.

She was a sensible pony ; she called me back one
day to the stable by her stampings and short little
neighs ; she was turning her head and looking round
at me — clearly calling me. I had given her some

120

A CHAPTER OF NOTHINGS 121

carrots and then left her eating one. I went back
to see what was the matter; the last carrot had
fallen from her mouth and her head was tied so
short — she was just going to be groomed — she
could not reach it. When I picked it up and gave
it to her she was quite satisfied. She was one of
those big-hearted horses, always ready to do more
than she was asked, wanting to go off the moment
she was mounted, and as much pleased to go away
from home as when her head was turned towards
her stable.

I used to see her fed, to make sure that Suki, the
syce, gave her the right amount and that she got it
all, and it often happened in camp that she and I fed
together, as I dined and breakfasted outside, and she
and her bucket of corn were brought up in front of
me. Fanny always finished first and then Suki let
go of her and she walked up to the table to see what
I had got and if there was anything for her. She had
very good table manners and stood waiting, often
with her head over my shoulder, till I showed her
what she might have on a plate on the table : and
I tried her with all sorts of things. She always
finished up my bread and potatoes for me and
managed to lap up milk out of a saucer, without
making much mess either; she had rather a fancy
for macaroni cheese and licked the plate round very
clean when she had eaten it all ; then rather reluct-
antly would be taken away by the syce. It grew
to be a regular thing for her to come in to dessert.

As we were riding one morning we went through
a village where I saw some very curious and striking

122 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

designs on the wall of a house — frescoes they might
be called — of most remarkable-looking animals. I
stopped to have a look at them and ask what they
were supposed to represent. I could not very well
understand the mixed language the people spoke,
so one ingenious man started to imitate the various
noises that each animal made, and then a lot of them
joined in. It afforded the greatest merriment to
us all, except to Fanny, who could not make out
what all the noise was about. She was tired of
waiting and turned her head round to bite at my foot,
as she playfully did sometimes, to ask what we were
stopping for. She somehow got her teeth and the
ring of the bit firmly entangled in the stirrup, which
frightened her a good deal, and she waltzed round
and round trying to free her head, her neck twisted
against her side, which fixed the stirrup aU the tighter
in her mouth. I sUpped off, while Lai Singh, the
forest guard, got hold of her and she nearly threw
herself down and got in such a panic that it was
almost impossible to help her. Fortunately the
stirrup strap, which must have been rather rotten,
broke, and even then it was with some difficulty that
we managed to disentangle the stirrup from her teeth
and bit.

The first place I went to shoot was near Yeotmal,
but the jungles were so infested with wild dogs, all
the game was driven away and I could get no news
of any tiger being about. Wild dogs killed one or
two of my baits and it seemed no use tying up
an3rwhere, the jungle seemed full of them. The
forest guard found a litter of eleven puppies and

A CHAPTER OF NOTHINGS 123

brought them in. Their wild dog mother must have
been furious when she came home, probably with food
that she had hunted for them, and found them all
gone ! They were about a month old — funny little
cross things — and how nasty they did smell ! I would
have taken two of them if I could have borne having
them in my tent.

The young cook I had with me, Shadrao, had
very bad fever for some days, his temperature
keeping up at 104, so that he was very ill and rather
delirious. One night when he was at his worst,
between twelve and two o'clock, he saw the devil.
Shaitan came to him and began to beat him ; he had
hard hands and long fingers, and the fingers were all
like black sticks; and he went on and on, beating
him for a long time.

The servants told me this in the morning with
solemn faces, and were very much frightened, even
Govind thought very badly of it. Govind is my boy,
but Ukes to be called ** Butler." The servants said
they had already called the village specialist and he
said it was necessary for him to have a young chicken
to exorcise the devil, so I ordered one to be brought.
When all preparations were made for the cure of
Shadrao, who was lying in a small hut, the doctor
or priest came in with his chicken, which he gave
some one to hold for him until the time came for its
use. He took handfuls of rice and flour and came
and stood in front of the cook; holding the flour
and rice very carefully, he made passes with it close
to the sick man's face for some minutes. When
this was finished he called for the chicken. He

124 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

said he had to throw it up in the air ; if the chicken
dropped down, then it showed the devil was still
there and the cook would die; if it was able to
fly upwards it would drive Shaitan away, and the
cook would recover. We all looked on with the deepest
interest. The small fowl was thrown upwards and
I must say it was a very close thing; it was just
big enough to fly. It rose a very little in the air
and then fluttered down. It seemed, however, that
was sufficient to qualify. In a voice of relief — ^we
were all relieved — the man said all was well and the
boy would not die.

He didn't, but, as I rather callously, perhaps,
seem to have written in my diary, '* for all the good
he is to me he might as well have done.'' He was
rather a poor cook.

I managed to change cooks as I was stopping at
a town on the way to my shoot near Balod, though it
did not turn out to be much for the better. I had
sent the new cook on ahead in a cart with my tent
so as to be ready at the next camp when I arrived.
As I followed, several men came up to me on the road
and one of them showed a very much swollen arm,
and they all had various bruises and marks about
them. They said they were travelling and had
several bottles of arak with them, and the cook and
chaprassi had fought them to get it. My men had
stolen and broken some of their things, drunk all
the liquor and were now lying dead drunk on the top
of the cart, which was only a mile or so in front,
where I rode on and found them. As the local
people were so angry about it, I thought some

A CHAPTER OF NOTHINGS 125

punishment was indicated, so I had the two men
hauled out of the cart and laid by the side of the road
to do, when able, the rest of the march on foot;
and I hoped that would learn them to get drunk !

I shot a few duck and snipe on a large tank on the
march and, as I was not far from the railway then,
sent them off by train to friends in Nagpur. The
coolie who took them in to the station had plenty of
time, if he travelled at night, to walk his fifteen miles
and hand them over to the guard of the mail train
passing in the morning. I suppose he loitered on
his way and probably used the nice soft ducks as a
pillow. He came back after five or six days bringing
a dirty crumpled bit of paper with him that he handed
to me. It was the railway receipt from the station-
master, and on it was written, '' Three dead birds
received, ducks, stinking, bad smell \" I hope my
friends appreciated them.

After a few marches we arrived at our standing
camp ; the ground for it was a good one, level and
covered with nice short grass and there was a shady
tree to put the tent under. I found that Fretful
Fanny's shoes had to come off as her feet were getting
long, and, as there were no shoemakers for her in
those parts, the village kotwal sent for a blacksmith.
The blacksmith ran away and hid as he said he was
afraid of horses and did not know the work, but he
sent some of his tools. The kotwal suggested a
goldsmith if I thought he would do ! The goldsmith
did not mind coming and brought some funny tools
with him. I showed him what to do and mostly
how to do it, and between us, with help from the syce.

126 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

we took the shoes off — rather a lengthy business —
and she went barefoot on the softish ground.

We went for a gentle ride one morning while her feet
were hardening, and I felt something terribly prickly
all round my neck. I put up my hand but could
feel nothing. Then I touched my eyelid and that
began to prick too. I touched different parts of
my face to try to find out what it was, and every-
where my finger went pricks started : it was like a
nightmare ! I opened my collar and a large, black,
hairy caterpillar fell out. He was an awful beast,
as dangerous as a tiger though without the excite-
ment. The itching was dreadful, and I had to turn
and come back at once. I told Govind to try and
take the hairs out of my neck. He found some, but
most of them were too small to see or get hold of.
He searched in boxes for a looking-glass so that I
might try and take them out, but I had forgotten to
bring one with me (I did not happen to see a reflection
of my face for some months, and when I suddenly
saw it in a glass, in the railway train, do not remember
feeling very much elated), but he found a small
broken bit that the cook had for shaving purposes,
and gave it to me, but I could not find them either.
He suggested soap and water and I scrubbed round
hard with a nailbrush and rubbed in grease, but I was
really miserable for some days with the wretched
itching and burning, and then I suppose the hairs
wore off.

To add to the discomforts, after being mauled by
a caterpillar I was evicted by ants, the long red
thin kind. I came home from seeing the baits next

A CHAPTER OF NOTHINGS 127

morning and was undressing for my tub when I
noticed ants running about in all directions, then
they began to run over my feet and also to nip pretty
hard. I flung on a dressing-gown — more ants in
that ! I rushed outside and shouted for all the
available servants and coolies and they came running
up. They tried to beat the ants ofi me and soon
were covered with them themselves. We looked at
the tent and the top of it was thick with them,
hardly standing room. They were swarming down
a branch that touched the tent roof, using it as a
bridge, and another stream of them was coming in
along the ground. The men tried to burn some
grass round the tent, but that was no use at all, and
we were all hopping and skipping about in our
endeavours to avoid them. The tent had to come
down, so some really valiant men ran inside and
dragged out one thing after another, being badly
bitten all the time. They pulled up the tent pegs,
the tent fell with a crash and they dragged it off and
spread it out in the sun. I stood at a distance trying
to knock off the remaining ants, quite overcome with
their bites and the swollen blotches left by the
caterpillar that were now turning into thousands of
little red marks. The ants happily did no permanent
damage to any one. I sat homeless and bathless out
in the middle of a field, while the servants burnt the
place out where the tent had been standing. A sort
of Punch and Judy show happened to come to
enliven me while I was waiting. An Indian girl
came up with a basket, out of which she took a doll
whose head waggled by means of her hand ; and she

128 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

talked to it and said a great many things for it in
reply, which helped to pass the time. When the sun
had driven the ants away from the tent the servants
pitched it again under a carefully selected tree, and
where no branch could come in contact with it.

I remember once being stung by a scorpion as I
was changing my clothes before dinner, and on
throwing a skirt over my head I felt a very severe
sting on my arm. I flung off the skirt, searched it
and found a scorpion in its folds. I had no remedy
handy, but remembered a cure that an Indian had
told me of shortly before. It was first to kill your
scorpion, cut him up fine and apply him to the
wound, as, the man said, every animal has an anti-
dote for its poison in its own body. I did this,
reducing the scorpion to a sort of potted meat with
my knife and laying it on my arm like a poultice.
I turned my sleeve up, so as not to interfere with the
arm, expecting every minute to feel severe pain and
anticipating a poor chance of enjoying my dinner or
night's rest.

My brother Ned and I were out together and during
dinner he asked me a good deal about my symptoms
in a heartless and cold-blooded manner. Then
for no apparent reason he changed the subject and
talked about the view from our camp, how picturesque
it all was, and the delightful ripphng of the small
stream that ran close by us. It was pitch dark and
no view was to be had then, besides I was fully taken
up with the importance of my sting. I told him I
could see nothing beautiful and he could go and
sketch all that he saw next morning if he liked.

A CHAPTER OF NOTHINGS 129

'' I wasn't thinking of making a sketch, but there
is a very pretty, cool place under that bamboo and
near to the stream; I've never seen such a pretty
or more suitable spot, do you think that is where you
would Uke to be buried? "

I had not yet thought so far into the future, and
besides I have always set my heart on being cremated
— in fact I have gone so far as to ask my husband to
have it done if it is not too expensive, but he has a
bad memory and I am sure will forget — so conse-
quently Ned and I had a few words over the matter.
We agreed, however, that his kind and thoughtful
(he put in the ** kind and thoughtful ") selection
was quite passable.

Oddly enough I felt no pain, ate my dinner and
slept as usual, and in the morning took off the remains
of scorpion, underneath which there was left a dark
red mark, rather swollen.

To return ; we were starting to tie up a bait one
evening when on passing a village some cowmen
called out to us to come. They had been driving
their cattle home, when the herd shied away from a
clump of bushes and bolted off ; when the men went
to find out the cause they saw a dead panther lying
stretched out. It was only just dead, almost warm
and had not begun to stiffen, and it had a great
many maggots about it ; there were long wounds and
many scars on the body also full of maggots. On
skinning it we could find no bullet holes, and the
shikari said it must have been attacked by a tiger.
I told the Forest Officer afterwards about it and in a
letter he said that it must have been a tiger that

130 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

mauled it, as he had several times come across the
remains of a panther killed by one, and once shot a
tiger over the remains of a panther.

The cowmen said that they had heard another
panther roaring round about and he would probably
come back to look for his mate, so I settled to sit
up over a goat. There was no suitable tree near, so
a small pit was dug for me to sit in and covered with
a few branches, leaving a peep-hole in front. The
goat that they brought had been killed — I forget
how — but not so very recently, and I had to sit with
my nose close to it ; it was bad enough anyhow, but
when the wind blew my way the smeU was rather
terrible. I was hoping to see a dark form come
between me and the stars, but nothing came, and
after a few hours' watching I gave it up as the smell
simply drove me home.

Before we left this camp I shot a tigress ; she was
shot in the ear and the bullet made absolutely no
mark on her skin anywhere, and there was no sign
of blood. Lai Singh looked all over her body for
the bullet hole and all the men were astonished not
to be able to find it; they would not altogether
believe me when I said she died from fright and they
only found the broken bullet when they were cleaning
the skull.

After the tigress was skinned the carcase was
dragged away and left in an open field in front of the
tent, and there was a great fight for the meat between
the vultures and two village dogs. The pi dogs
arrived first, then the vultures and chils came swoop-
ing down from the blue and sat round in a big circle,

A CHAPTER OF NOTHINGS 131

not quite daring to go in and drive the dogs off.
After a time the vultures could stand it no longer and
half a dozen of them would make a rush in, and the
dogs, half afraid of them too, would try their best to
keep them off by snapping and jumping at them. Both
sides were getting much annoyed with each other ; the
black pi dog charged a vulture who was venturing
too close, and caught hold of, and held on to, a bunch
of its feathers between his teeth, while the vulture
seized him with its beak. They had a great tussle,
the vulture trying to get away, which eventually it
did minus many feathers. When the dogs had
eaten their fill they retired to a short distance and
the big birds were all round the carcase in a second,
tearing and squealing and crowding in on each other,
with their large wings half spread out. In about
twenty minutes there was not a vestige of meat
left, and nothing was to be seen but the backbone
and ribs. The leg bones had been torn off and
dragged away. The contented vultures sat about
on the trees around while a few of the weaker ones,
who had not been able to push their way in, still sat
and pecked the bones.

Near our next camp a cow was killed while grazing
in the middle of open fields ; the owner was sure it
was killed by a tiger and wanted me to sit up over
it, but there were no convincing teeth-marks in the
throat to prove that it was a tiger. However, I
arranged to sit up that night in the only tree there
was, which was really too far from the kill to be of
much use for a night shot. There was a very good
moon and after a long wait a hyena came and feasted,

132 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

then a second one came and, while one eat, the other
one sat and watched. After they had finished what
I should have considered several substantial meals
they ran round and round the dead cow, and then had
a glorious game in the bright moonlight, rolling
about and tumbling over each other ; they screamed
and laughed and cantered away, circling round, and
then began their games all over again. I dropped
off to sleep in the middle of it, but their noises and
screaming woke me up every time. Towards dawn
they went off and a small animal that looked like
a tiny leopard came to feed. It crept inside the
carcase of the cow, but kept constantly popping its
head out to look round and see if all was safe, and the
moon lighted up its eyes, which shone out against
the dark background. Lai Singh said, in the
morning, it was what they call a chitwa, and not the
tendwa of the large kind. I think I had seen its
picture on the walls of the fresco house, but it did
not make the beautiful noises the village people had
done in imitating it.

I had only a few more days in those jungles and
had no more luck with shikar there; the journey
back was rather troublesome, Fanny went lame, the
buffaloes that were drawing the carts took it in turn
to run away or lie down and refuse to go, and on
arrival at the last camping ground a violent thunder-
storm came on and soaked everything through.
And it was here, too, that after amusing myself with
playing a game of chess, cut out of the Field, and
putting the pieces away, the poor white queen was
forgotten and dropped, and she lay out alone on

A CHAPTER OF NOTHINGS 133

the ground all night long, an easy and helpless prey
for any prowUng beast that might come. Luckily
I found her there before I left in the morning,
soaked in perspiration, or it may possibly have
been dew.

X

A CENTRAL PROVINCE TIGER

WE had been unsuccessfully tying up baits
for tiger at several places round my camp,
and I went round with the man selecting
what we thought might be more likely spots. By the
advice of the village kotwal, we had also sent to
tie up about six miles away at Rant a, in a jungle
which I had never been in.

We were coming home late in the evening, when
two or three Ranta men came running up in a great
state of excitement. It seems they had tied up the
decoy bullock at the very edge of the jungle. The
jungle covered a good-sized hill, a mile or two long,
skirted by open fields. They had tied up securely
by the side of a small dry nullah, and had then left
the place and had hardly gone sixty yards when they
heard a growl and a scuffle. From their account, I
do not think they waited a moment to Usten but took
to their heels.

I asked what time of day this happened. They
pointed, as is their custom, to the height the sun
would be at about four o'clock. They added that,
after a time, they plucked up courage, and collecting
one or two more men, they ventured back to the edge
of the jungle. But from a distance they could see

134

A CENTRAL PROVINCE TIGER 135

no sign of the bail and made out that he had dis-
appeared. Then they came in quickly with the news.

'' It's a panther," I said.

'* No, sahib, we are certain it is a tiger/'

" But it is much more Ukely to be a panther,
to come so soon and to be so bold — when you had
scarcely come away I "

But no, they were convinced it was certainly a
tiger. Lai Singh, the forest guard, the village
kotwal and I talked it over. They said it would be
best to send the men back to the jungle, telling them
to call at one or two villages on the way and arrange
for coolies to beat and be in readiness early next
morning. Meanwhile, we would bring along a
contingent from a village near camp and our own
men. So off the party went. I thought, perhaps,
as every one knew of our plans the day before we
might make an early start, about ten o'clock; but
one knows the ways of the native, and I was not
surprised when nobody turned up next morning.

I sent out again to tell the men to come at once
and promised that they should be back for their
dinner.

They were generally willing to beat in this district
and they beat fairly well, but now they waited to
eat their long, leisurely midday meal and then came
straggling into camp.

In the cold weather the days are short and I was
getting rather sad about the whole affair. With
six miles to go, it began to seem a hopeless chance
of arriving before sundown.

The headman hustled thirty men out of our

136 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

village, saying we should never get enough, and that
we could not do with less than two hundred in such
a big jungle. Eventually they moved off.

The syce had been taken ill with something of the
nature of pleurisy, so I had sent him to a distant
hospital in a cart. (Poor man ! he hated going and
the jolting gave him great pain.) So I saddled
Fretful Fanny and soon caught up the beaters, and
when we reached Ranta a small sprinkling of cooHes
had arrived.

While waiting for more men, I went to see the spot
where the bullock had been tied. The place was
practically in the open and I followed the track along
which the animal had been dragged for a short
distance. I rather wanted to see the kill in order
to find out if a tiger or leopard had to be dealt with,
as in my experience a tiger invariably begins to eat
at the hind-quarters — the rump — and a panther at
the stomach. If it was the latter, beating would
probably be useless and I should have to sit up over
the remains. The trails however, went too far into
the jungle and I did not wish to disturb that; nor
had I time. I still held to the idea that it was a
panther we were after ; but I was wrong.

The kotwal asked me to choose a tree to sit in and
to make arrangements for the beat.

As I had never ridden out in this particular direc-
tion, I knew nothing of the lie of the land, but I
agreed to go and look at any place suggested. The
local talent in shikar knowledge gathered together,
decided matters, and we at once started up a steep
rocky path, leaving the beaters behind. We took

A CENTRAL PROVINCE TIGER 137

with us a short ladder and a khatiya, or small string-
laced bedstead, to be tied up in a tree for me to sit
in.

At the top of the hill we dived silently into the
forest some hundreds of yards, and arrived at a big
tree which the head Ranta man said was the best
place for my purpose. A more unUkely looking spot
I never saw. In front, stretching for about a mile,
was a wide rocky ravine running down towards me,
thickly covered with trees and undergrowth. Then,
below us, this nullah was cut at right angles by
another running straight across our front. If the
tiger was beaten down the long ravine, he would
have to cross nullah number two and climb a long
hundred yards up a steep, fairly open slope to my
tree.

'' No good, useless,** I said; " go lower down and
ril sit where the nullahs join.'*

'' No, this is the best place; where else could the
sahib go? "

We compromised, and I found a tree more or less
suitable, rather lower down, but still too far from the
nullah to make certain of a shot.

Time was getting on, so up went the khatiya, and
it was firmly fixed with ropes some twelve feet up.
. We settled where stops were to be placed, taking
great care to have extra men to guard the exit by
either end of the cross nullah. Then we hurried back
to the village to collect the beaters and found that
by that time a hundred and forty men had assembled.
That was cheering, and they went off in parties under
Lai Singh and the kotwal, while I returned and

138 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

clambered up my tree, taking the D.B. 500 Express
rifle and 20-bore gun with ball.

There was absolutely no sound for a long time.
The beat must have started a mile away, and I sat
and listened to the silence, as it were ! It was not
until four o'clock, when the sun was getting very
low, that I heard distant shouts. The yelUng and
shouting gradually became louder. The men got
fairly near and I began to think the beat was blank
till a stop tapping his tree on the right made my heart
beat. I think the heart-beating time is the mystery
of knowing or hearing something is afoot, before
seeing, perhaps, a harmless peafowl. But the
moment anything comes into sight, I forget myself
and do not even remember that I have a heart.

The shouting of the beaters continued, growing
louder each minute ; then there was another tapping
at the junction of the nullahs, and I heard a voice,
very low and gentle, saying, '' ]ao, jdo, chale jao I '*
" Go, go, get along ! *' It was the forester telling the
hagh to come my way.

Another long pause and certain indications that
the tiger was sulking in the hollow, and very angry
that both his intended roads were cut off. But the
beat still came on. Then suddenly there was a
loud, furious, snarling growl and a great striped thing
charged out of the bushes below, straight up towards
me. He came bounding along, sixteen annas to the
rupee, with back first arched up and then extended
at each stride. There was no time for a steady aim.
The rifle was at my shoulder, and as he passed to

A CENTRAL PROVINCE TIGER 139

my left, I fired. He took no notice and I gave him
the second barrel. Had I missed ? Oh, horror !
But he carried on for only a few more strides and
rolled over with a roar into some bushes. He lay
there snarhng for a short time and I could see nothing
of him.

A stop up in a tree called out :

" The hagh has crawled away down the hill, back
into the nullah, where he is lying.''

The beaters had stopped after hearing the shots,
and it was a relief to see them all climbing up the
handiest trees they could find. And they did climb,
some of them thirty and forty feet out of harm's way.
Lai Singh and the kotwal had made a detour and
came up to me from behind and I climbed down.

" Where is the tiger now? " shouted Lai Singh.

*' Gone into some very long grass close to thick
jungle and I can't see him."

We talked matters over in whispers. We could
not follow a wounded tiger into long grass, and we
could not wait for an hour to give him time to die
or stiffen on account of the failing light. So I gave
orders that all the men were to return to their homes,
giving the hagh a wide berth (as they knew where he
was lying up) and we would leave hi^i till next
day.

We found that they had nearly all gone already,
not fancying a wounded animal in long grass. No
more did I.

We were standing in a group and I was at the ready
for a shot in case of need.

140 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

I turned to go, but there was a certain hesitation
and whispering among them, and Lai Singh said :

" But, sahib, how about Nur Singh? "

'* Who's he, Nur Singh?"

*' He is one of our men, and he is up a tree exactly
over the tiger and he dare not come down." (Come
down ! No, I should think not I) ** If he falls in
the night, what then ! '*

" Well, call to him and find out what the tiger is
doing."

*' He is not able to speak. He has lost his voice
through fear."

No, we certainly could not leave Nur Singh to his
fate. What an awful night for him ! It was
unthinkable. Something had to be done, and that
soon. We must make the tiger charge if we could !
That was the only way out of it that I could see.

The men went up into trees again and shouted.
No result. We called out to the poor man and told
him he should not be left to the tiger and darkness,
and eventually bucked him up so much that his
voice began to return, though it was a very husky
voice.

Meanwhile we were getting nearer the long grass,
Lai Singh climbing trees to try and get a view, the
kotwal lying down to peep under the bushes and a
plucky little man in a black coat, only about five
foot high and slight to match, and who climbed like
a monkey, venturing nearer than any one until I
called him back and then made them all get behind
me.

A CENTRAL PROVINCE TIGER 141

'' I can see him, Huzur/' called Lai Singh from a
tree, '* there he is in the grass under those red leaves."

Another man said he could see the stripes and tried
to point him out. I could see nothing, but the tiger
happened to move, and then sat up. I had a clear
view of his shoulder, fired, and down he went snarling,
lost again in the grass and shifting his position.

Nur Singh now found his voice :

** I can see him, right under me." And then
presently, '' Now he is lying down as if he was asleep.
Now he has got up. Now he is saying, * Gurr — gurr '
—very angry."

I fired several shots at the grass I saw moving.
Nothing happened.

*' What's he doing now, Nur Singh? "

** Lying again, like sleep."

We were now about thirty yards from him. One
of the men said he could see him plainly from his
tree. They were all in trees now, and I found I
had come to the last two cartridges on me. How
stupid and careless of me !

The little man in the black coat had the cartridge
bag, so down he scrambled, replenished my stock
and then helped to hoist me into a wretched little
tree that swayed about, where I was only some five
feet from the ground, but from which I could really
get a clear view of the tiger. Black-coat had time
to scramble back before I fired. There was an
answering roar. The bagh was lying on the bank of
the Uttle nullah, on the far side. I shot again, and
then, with fine courage, he came out at me with a

142 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

rush — such a bold charge — down the bank. His
rush was stopped by his faUing head over heels into
the nullah.

I reaUzed in a flash, and rather late in the day,
my precarious position in the small swaying tree,
clinging on by my legs. He was up again, but not
before I had time to reload. I got in another right
and left. Down he fell again and lay there, but this
time only raised his grand head, and we looked each
other in the face.

I managed to get a steady shot into his head. He
was down and out.

What rejoicings there were, and salaamings and
noise and yellings ! The men came scrambling down
from their trees, so did Nur Singh, and he had to be
patted on the back and congratulated. He was
grinning then, and I laughed to see the heights from
which the men were climbing down. Our following
had dwindled away to about forty. We made a
hasty measurement with my tape, nose to tip of
tail, stretched taut — 9 ft. 6 in. There was no time
for any peg-to-peg arrangement ; and it was well into
moonlight before we got him packed and tied on to
a ladder. He was a heavy massive tiger, and the
bearers found him a big load as they stumbled down
the stony path under black shadows. I found that
I had shot away eleven cartridges, and on skinning,
we found six bullet holes behind the shoulders,
three on each side (several rather too low), one in the
thigh, one in the fleshy part of his neck, another had
grazed his foot, and there was a slight wound on the

A CENTRAL PROVINCE TIGER 143

forearm. There was one in his ear, going into his
head, which must have been the finishing shot.
The heart had a shallow rip up the side, and lungs
and liver were an absolute mush. One shoulder was
broken to bits; that must have been after he fell
in the nullah. And to think that he was able and
plucky enough to charge on the top of all this !

As we walked down the hill I suddenly realized
that it was a very cold night and then found that I
was simply soaked in perspiration. On the way
I tumbled over a rock, and was just scrambling up,
when I was seized by many hands, dragged to my
feet, and almost carried along to the village.

On our arrival there was more excitement, women
and children of course all turning out. I went off
to a shed to saddle my white pony and tried to start,
but the road was blocked by many Indian women
holding a rope across it, and with much laughter
refusing to let me through till I had paid my way.

Some outrunners had gone on ahead with the news
to the next village, a biggish one, and, on arrival
there, our funeral procession was met by torch-
bearers and the village orchestra. Such a din !
horns blowing, drums 'beating and shouting on all
sides. Fretful Fanny was beside herself with nerves
and excitement, and when she found some more
women and another rope blocking her path it was too
much for her. A few plunges, and the women dropped
their rope and fled, and Fanny bolted for home.

We pulled up when we got well away from the
glare and noise, and I waited to be shown the road.

144 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

When the procession caught me up again, the band
had about blown itself out. They did not play
again until our moonlight entry into camp.

The servants came out salaaming and my boy,
Govind, had tears in his eyes when he saw the big
tiger stretched out.

XI

SOME BEES

A FRIEND of mine, whom I will call Louisa,
came to stay with us for the purpose of seeing
something of camp life. She and I started,
out several marches from the railway, meaning to
try for both big and small game. Sometimes my
husband and I had got quite good bags of quail and
partridge here, but this year they were rather few
and far between.

Louisa and I were out one morning and had got
as far as hitting one duck and missing a partridge
when, in beating up a nice bushy fence, we had the
misfortune to beat out a nest of bees. I was on the
side of the fence away from them, and had not an
idea of what had happened when I saw Louisa,
Bumps Raja, with his friend Dial, the forest guard,
and a coolie all flying for their lives. The coolie on
my side started to run too in an opposite direction,
calling to me to come. I followed for a little way,
then told him to stop and tell me what in the world
we were running away from ! He shouted out that
they were bees, and off he went; but I could only
see one bee anywhere near him and there were none
on me.
The other men had all disappeared, but I heard
L 145

146 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

Louisa's voice from a distance saying, '* What shall
I do ! '' and saw her in the middle of a field vainly
beating the air. I could not leave her to her fate,
so turned back and went to the rescue. She had a
good swarm of bees round her and numbers in her hair
and settling on her. I picked several bees out of her
hair and a good many stings out of her face, and then
half of her swarm left her and came and surrounded
me. Several bees settled on my face : the first one
I hit at to knock him off, but only drove the sting
into my own cheek — quite my own fault. After
that I left them severely alone and they wandered
about just as they pleased, at the back of my head,
on my face, in my hair, under the eaves of my helmet ;
and they rather wanted to crawl down my neck,
but I tied my handkerchief inside my collar to pre-
vent them. That one sting was the only one I got,
but there was a booming, buzzing noise all round us.
When we were children we were always told if
ever we happened to be attacked by bees to run and
put our heads into the nearest bush, and I can
remember quite well a small pistol I had, with tiny
cartridges, that I used to take up to the beehives —
old-fashioned skeps — and shoot in at the door to
see what they would do ! and then fly for the nearest
bush, put my head in it and wait for the attack. I
grew bolder afterwards and waited at the front door,
but the bees never did come; one or two perhaps
might come and look out of the hole. It was rather
disappointing that they took no notice at all of me
or my pistol and, long-suffering as they were, went
on making our honey.

SOME BEES 147

At any rate I remembered this and advised Louisa
to throw herself down with her head in the biggest
bush she could find. She tried it, but the bush was
not a suitable one, and she jumped up and ran again.
I could see no bush, so lay down with my head in
the longest grass I could find. She followed suit,
and there we lay at a little distance from each other.
The bees grew quieter when we remained still, but
if one of us spoke to ask *' How are you getting on ? ''
there was fury again, and they started off booming
and buzzing round us as bad as ever; so we kept
quiet and said nothing, and must have lain there for
quite half an hour.

Poor old Bumps had been much agitated. He had
come back to me and tried to lie down beside me,
hitting at the bees with his fore-paws and rubbing
his poor nose and eyes. I tried to put the ends of
my coat over his head, but he could not keep still,
and finally rushed off.

We heard a noise in the distance and then voices,
and a whole army of men from the village came along
beating drums and empty kerosene tins, shouting
and making all the noise they could, looking for us
— and we took some finding ! They had brought
bundles of dry grass with them, which we did not see
till afterwards, and laid them to windward of us and
set them alight to try and smoke the bees off. My
coolie came up to me — and I fancy he thought I was
dead — with a thick ragged old quilt thrown over his
head and covering him all up, which he flung over
me, caught me by the arm and pulled me on to my
feet. We walked along under it and then collected

148 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

Louisa, and all three of us sat with our heads close
together while another brave man lit another fire all
round us and smoked the remainder of the bees off.
Then we got up and made for the village where we
had left the tonga. There we found poor Dial sitting
in the middle of a circle of fire and smoke ; he had
been stung the worst of anybody, stung wherever
they could get at him. As for Bumps Raja, he did
look so funny, poor man, sitting up all ready to
start, on the box seat of the tonga, his nose and eyes
dreadfully swelled up and long stings sticking out
in every direction.

The village people set to work and pulled out the
stings left in Louisa's face and neck and all Dial's,
while I attended to the *' Raja.''

No more partridge shooting for us that day ; the
ponies were put in and we started for camp and
ammonia, and none of us were much the worse for
the adventure.

We had a series of uneventful beats and unsuccess-
ful nights sitting up ; and things went wrong for us
generally. We went to a fresh camp and my tent
was pitched under a beautiful shady tamarind tree,
where I was laid low with fever. One is always
warned not to camp under tamarinds for fear of
getting fever, but one never does heed any warning
and only learns by experience, and the tent was
moved next day. I have certainly camped under
them since with no bad results, however. We
changed camp altogether after a few days, and on
arrival at the new ground, before anything could
be unpacked, a most violent thunderstorm came on.

SOME BEES 149

The cartmen ran away to the village for shelter, and
the ponies were sent there too. Our servants did
their best to get one tent up for us, we helping them,
and then their own small one, and we sat soaked and
shivering until dark, with water standing a couple
of inches deep everywhere.

The rain began to fall less heavily and they
managed to pitch another tent and open out our
camp beds. The cook gave us one or two cold
potatoes for dinner, and we soon waded to bed to
get out of the floods. Bumps had found a low stool
to keep himself out of the wet and off the ground,
but it was much too small for his size and he over-
lapped it on all sides and looked very uncomfort-
able. Soon a cold wet nose was dabbed against
my face and two forepaws were put on to the edge
of the bed. Might he come up, or was this too much
of a favour to ask ? He cHmbed up with extraordinary
care, trying not to wet me, and laid himsdf down
at one side of the bed, near my feet, and at full
length, so as to take as little room as possible, and
he never tried to curl himself into a comfortable ball
all night long. It rained all night, and the poor
servants had a wretched time in their dripping single
fly tent. Next morning everything was quickly
packed and loaded on the carts again and we went
on for shelter to a forest bungalow there happened
to be a few miles away. Then one after another of
the whole party fell ill with fever, and there we
stayed until every one had recovered and the ground
had dried up.

We were invited to go to a village to try and rid

150 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

them of a panther that had been committing great
depredations among the flocks and herds. He had
grown so bold that he had come into the middle of
the village one night and stolen a calf. All the
people would give every assistance if we would
come, they were so anxious to be rid of him. We
tied up for several nights before the goat was kiUed.
I went to look early one morning and found the
panther had only just left as I came up : the goat
was still warm and had only a small fillet bitten out
of its shoulder. A ladder was put over the kill at
once to be ready for the evening, and I went down to
sit up about five o'clock : the place was very close
to the village, so he could not be expected to come
very early. The sun set, silence settled down and
everything was very still for an hour or more.
Suddenly the silence was broken by a curious scream,
something Uke a child's but not quite like, and some
very sad cries followed by wailing — weird sounds
they were. A monkey, not far away, too, said angry
words. There was another long wait, and then I saw
in the moonlight an indistinct shadow steal up to the
goat : it was the panther, and without a moment's
pause he began to tear away at the flesh. I did not
give him time to finish his supper and he very soon
lay dead. The whole village turned out to see him,
and he was carried back to camp, a crowd surrounding
and a long procession following him, all abusing him
and calling him murderer, thief, rascal, badmash,
every bad name they could think of.

This is quite an ordinary story, but what was
curious about it was the cries I heard and that I

SOME BEES ' 151

could not account for. I was surprised that the
panther had been quite so long coming after dark,
as she — it was a female — had no time to make a meal
in the morning after killing the goat, so she ought
to have been hungry. When the skinning was over
I told them to cut open the stomach and see if there
was anything in that. It was crammed with large
pieces of undigested monkey : there was a forearm
whole with its little black-palmed hand and nails
intact, hairs on the back of the hand and arm all
fresh and clean as a Uve monkey. There were large
mouthfuls of legs, back, ribs, meat and bone, all
clean; and however the panther could expect to
crowd a good-sized goat on the top of all this monkey
I don't know. It was a wonder she came back at all.
The monkey was certainly not a big one, but I
should much have liked to know how the tragedy
occurred : did the monkey try to struggle away ;
had it time to make all those long-drawn cries before
it was killed, a panther always being so quick over
this work; or did the poor mother sit watching
and wailing, all powerless to help ? The bones could
tell us nothing I

Bumps had been very stiff and lame after our wet
camp, and one morning when we drove out to shoot
quail I shut him in the high-sided bullock cart, to
prevent him coming with us and using his bad leg.
The sound of the guns was too much for him, he
tried to jump out, and the next thing was that he
lay on the hard road howling with pain : he had
broken a bone near the elbow. I was preparing to
take him in, a long journey, to see a veterinary

152 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

surgeon, when the forest ranger came in and said
that living near was a very clever (and drunken)
old rascal, who was a doctor, and who had cured his
pony's dislocated hip ! He belonged to the Lomani
tribe ; should he send for him ?

I thought it would be better than jolting the poor
dog along all those miles, so the Lomani came. He
made a paste of small black seeds pounded up and
mixed with a couple of eggs. This paste was laid
on the bad leg and the leg tied in a sort of cradle
of bamboos that he had cut into lengths and split
down; outside the bamboos, to hold everything
together, he bound oiled cotton rags. The Lomani
came daily at first, to do the dressing, and then left
it on permanently, but said on no account must the
dog get it wet.

Bumps could get up and walk about on three legs,
but was not able to lie down unassisted. When he
got up to change his position at night he used to
grunt for me to come and help him. I put my arms
round him and pushed him into them with my chin,
when he would let himself down very gently into the
position he wanted. Soon he learnt to lie back
against my arms without the chin drill, and then he
got to throw himself into them almost before I
was ready. After a few weeks he could use the leg
a little and went off by himself to have a swim in a
pond. At night I noticed there was a most horrible
smell in my room, and it, of course, was the once
hard plaster of the now rotten soft eggs : the plaster
that Bumps was warned never to let get wet. I
took the whole thing off, which was a very nasty

SOME BEES 153

job; it was beginning to take the skin off the leg
too, and I dressed it with sulphur and vaseUne.
Bumps went about quite happily on three legs for a
time ; then one day he saw a jackal, forgot all about
the bad leg, put it down, started to chase the jackal
and finished the hunt on all four legs. He was always
a little tender on the broken one, however, when he
remembered.

Near this place, another day, I shot a panther in a
small beat, and he rolled over dead under a bush
and into a narrow little pit there was in the ground.
The beaters came up and stood close to him, asking
where the panther was.

I told them I had missed and he had gone on.
They looked rather disappointed, but the forest
guard thought there was something mysterious about
it and did not believe me. I said they were a fine
lot of fools if they could not find him, at which they
thought there was some joke somewhere, and began
to hunt about. Two or three of them suddenly
caught sight of him within a yard of them, and the
startled look of horror on their faces, as they jumped
aside, was most amusing to see, and the others were
delighted and stood and laughed at them. They
laughed and talked about it all the way home.

I remember that Louisa and I had a large supply
of bananas sent us and we were eating some when
we went round in the morning to see the horses.
Fretful Fanny and Corkscrew were each given their
usual bonne bouche, and then we thought we would
try them with bananas. I did not expect they would
like them, and I do not suppose they had ever tasted

154 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

them before, but they went quite wild about them,
strained against their ropes and tried to get all that
we had. The next morning they had not forgotten
about them, and were all expectancy when we went
out, whinnying and stamping in their impatience,
and nearly tearing out the pegs of their head and heel
ropes, so that the syces had to come and hold them.
They had quite a feast of bananas as long as they
lasted, but we threw away the skins for fear they
might choke themselves in their excitement. Sugar-
cane, of course, they always loved, but it was not a
patch on bananas.

Louisa had a good deal of fever all this time, so
could not enjoy the life as much as I hoped she
would, and she had to go back for change of air and
the shelter of a bungalow.

We were together once again for a few weeks in
the Central Provinces. The forest ranger told us
he had received word that some women, on several
occasions, had been attacked by bears as they were
gathering sticks, and one woman's face had been
torn down by one and that they dare not go out into
the jungle. The place, Kukrikone, was some miles
away and the village men would be all ready to beat
whenever we would come, being only too anxious that
the bears should be killed.

We started off one morning for Kukrikone and,
I remember, on the way there came on a very heavy
shower, and a forest guard rushed up to me with an
open umbrella, which very much disconcerted poor
Fanny. I had to let it drop as quickly and quietly
as I could. The beaters were aU ready and waiting

SOME BEES 155

for us, so we went straight on at once into the jungle.
We had several beats and got several bears, but there
was only one worth telling about, the first one that
we got.

The place to beat was a widish valley covered with
trees, and steep rocky hills or banks on each side :
a ready-made and first-class place for beating. From
the top of the rocks the men had an excellent view
of any animal there might be there, and also were
out of harm's way; while only a few would be
required to keep along the bottom.

The places we were to sit in were arranged very
quickly, and when I climbed up into my tree I had
no notion of where Louisa was sitting, except that
she was on my right-hand side. At first it seemed
as if there was nothing in the beat, as the shouting
coolies were getting near; but then appeared in
front of me a fine big bear, trotting out from behind
some trees. I waited to let him get nearer, as he
was coming straight for my tree, and fired ; he spun
round and, at the second shot, fell over. He was
not done for by any means, but jumped up quickly
and went on through the bushes in Louisa's direc-
tion. I heard her fire two shots and the bear turned
and went back towards the beaters. They made a
tremendous noise all togetheirtbad managed to turn
him again, and he cantered heavily round in a circle,
going back towards Louisa. I got a distant "tross
shot at him, but missed, I think, and saw nothing
more for a few minutes. The bear haxigone straight
towards Louisa's tree, and then I Heard a *' cHck,
cUck '' : she, in her exciterfient, had cocked her

156 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

hammer rifle, had forgotten to put in other cartridges
and pulled the triggers. I heard Louisa's voice, a
sound of exclamation, probably a bad word, though
as I could not hear what she said this may have been
only the fancy of my evil mind. I heard the shikari,
who was up a tree further away, talking too. I
looked through the trees to my right, and could just
make out, about sixty yards away, between the
leaves, the tiny little platform arrangement, high up
in the tree where Louisa was sitting. Some black
thing was moving, just below : the head and
shoulders of a bear appeared, he was climbing the
tree, his great paw was extended and he was in the
act of clawing on to her machan, and the next moment
would be clawing her* Of course she was helpless
with her unloaded rifle.

Two upright branches, coming down to a fork,
prevented my seeing more of the bear than his head
and shoulder. There was no time to climb down
and run to them, but there was just time to think
that sometimes a rifle throws up, and remember that
sometimes the patterns on a target go far afield of
the bull, and above it ; and that once a panther had
escaped, the bullet mark being found in the rock
just above him.

I pulled my knees up, rested the rifle on them, got
the bead on the bear's shoulder as low as I possibly
could do, avoiding the forked branches — and there
was not much room to spare now between Louisa
and the bear — and fired. The bear dropped, where
I could not see, and Louisa, to my relief, was still
sitting upright in her machan.

SOME BEES 157

The men said the bear fell to the bottom and picked
himself up slowly and went away behind us very
sick. I then caught sight of him going away at
some distance, and got another shot in, and he
went down for the last time. I came down, climbed
along some rocks rather above him, and as the men
said he was not quite dead, finished him.

XII

WILD DOGS

I WENT to Baroda Territory to try for some small
game shooting. My husband and I had shot
before in those parts and sometimes had won-
derful sport there. I remember one day riding out
eight or nine miles to some fields that held immense
numbers of grey quail, and I shot forty brace before
breakfast, and then sent word to my husband to
come, as the place was so good. I forget what the
total bag for the day was, but we had to wear leather
boots on the guns, as the barrels were too hot to hold.
The quail were not wasted because we were sending
them in for the use of a big guest camp.

I had no small game shooting for some time, and
the next occasion was in Scotland, where I was dis-
gusted to find I could not touch a feather, which
did much more hurt to my vanity than to the birds.
The good shooting places often vary so much in
India, in different years, that a good place one season
may hold nothing the next. This year happened
to be a very poor one, and though my shooting had
come back to me a bit I never made a bag worth
speaking of ; and 2.s usual the cooHes were so much
more intent on picking up the empty cartridge cases
than the snipe or quail that often birds were lost
that they should have marked down.

158

WILD DOGS 159

It was very pleasant, though, being out in India
once more, and again in camp, and seeing the little
striped squirrels, that Ned used to call '' hairy
lizards,'' running up and down the trees, chirruping,
the seven sisters — birds, perhaps of the thrush
persuasion, and about that size — squabbling away
together in a bush, and the small lizards running
up and down the wall catching flies and insects,
and sometimes tumbling down on the ground with
a smack, on their little stomachs. A rat, too, came
at night : the sound of a tin soap-dish rattling and
then a splashing woke me, and I got up to catch
the burglar, which I found to be a wretched little
rat swimming round and round in the washhand
basin. It had very bright eyes and said so many little
squeaky things, seeming so anxious to live, and as
it had not eaten any of my soap I tipped it out and
gave it a push or two with the candlestick to get it
away. I thought I heard the same sort of noise
again during the night when I was only half
awake. I never thought, however, it could be fool
enough to go back, but in the morning its fooHsh
little body was in the basin again, and this time
drowned.

I moved on and stayed in the camp of a young
Raja and his brother who had kindly invited me
to go to their shoot. I had to go some little way by
rail, and went to a very wayside station to get the
train. The station-master was very attentive
indeed, quite officious, so much so that I began to
wonder what he could want. He helped to move
the luggage, and told me that as there was so much

i6o DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

it would cost a good deal to take it with me, but he
thought he could arrange to make it cheap if he
weighed it himself and then had it put in the van.
He weighed it so well that it would have cost nothing
at all if a stupid clerk had not interfered, and made
out a bill for eightpence. The station-master went
off to his office and stayed there for some little time,
and when he came back with a paper and laid it
before me asking me to sign it, I ceased wondering
the cause of all this politeness. On the paper he had
written in English — he knew a very little English —

** , Station-Master of , through the

Almighty has the misfortune to meet such a lady
gentleman and great good will accrue, but he is not
man to want promotion. This man very good man
and work very promptly, he is honest fellow and all
othermen damn blackguards."

I was very glad to sign the paper, certifying this
was what the station-master said about himself;
and I very much hope that he understood little
enough English to show it to his superiors, as they
might be amused.

After the train journey there was one or two hours'
drive, in the state carriage, to the Raja's camp.
He and his brother were there and their two wives.
The Raja supplied me with everything I wanted,
but I lived away from his camp in my own tent.
He sent word each morning what they intended to
do in the shooting way, and I went to sit with them
in the evening round the camp fire. The Ranee
had shot her first panther the day before I got there.
She and the brother's wife lived in purdah, but they

WILD DOGS i6i

came out shooting, starting in a closed carriage or
in doolies, and after a few miles, when they were
well away from the small town, all the purdahs were
thrown aside ; they would emerge dressed in khaki
saris, and join in the sport and climb ladders and
enjoy it all. The two Princes were wonderfully
good riders, the Raja having won, I believe, several
pig-sticking cups. They rode out to the shoots
and lent me a very nice horse to ride with them.
The first day I went with them I thought I had never
been such a mad ride before, but soon looked upon
it as the usual thing. The moment they were in
the saddle they started off at full gallop, raced along
for all they were worth, through little narrow paths
in long grass, over ploughed land, up rocky hills
and down the other side, down steep banks of nullahs
with stony bottoms, splashed through the water, then
scrambled out again, over sheet rock and through
jungle, and never once drew rein until they arrived
at their destination. Most of the way was a single
path and we rode close on each other's heels. The
Raja went first to lead the way, I came next in the
cloud of dust his horse threw up, and what the last
of the line did, when there was the dust of about six
horses, I cannot imagine. The first ride was six
or eight miles and the clever horses did not make a
single mistake. We pulled up suddenly and jumped
off. Able to speak for the first time since the start,
I wanted to know what was the hurry. None, as
we sat and waited for the Ranees an hour and more.
The horses were streaming and looked as if they had
had buckets of water thrown over them, and I said

M

i62 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

so. The Raja only laughed and said they were
used to it, and they often rode like that, all of
them.

The Ranees arrived and we took up our positions
for the beat. It was an enormously big one and
covered a great extent of hilly country : it took
over a thousand men, but it was almost impossible
for them to keep in line over such uneven ground*
We were to shoot at anything we saw; there was
a leopard there but it broke back, some pigs and a
few small deer came through, and a certain number
of things were killed.

It was a pleasant time I had there; I tried to
persuade the ladies to ride, but they thought it
might be going rather far against the custom.

I went on to the Central Provinces and made a
start from Chanda. After one or two marches I
arrived, as it was getting dark, at the Weinganga
river, and the cartmen said it was too late to cross
as there was a good deal of water, so we waited on
the bank until morning. It seemed natural to sleep
in a cart travelling along, but it was a new experience
to sleep in one standing still, with the bullocks
munching away at their bundles of grass all round.
It happened to be Christmas Eve and I felt like
shepherds watching their flocks by night, all seated
in a cart : however, it was very peaceful with no
bumps and jolts.

Streams of mist were rising from the river in the
early morning, and we had to wait a little to let
the day get warm before the bullocks might go
through the cold water. The river was several

WILD DOGS 163

hundred yards wide, deep in parts, with sandbanks

here and there; there were two pairs of dug-outs

near the shore, and as our carts went rumbUng and

tumbhng down the steep sandy banks I wondered

very much how these small boats were to get the

carts and oxen across. Men hung on to the backs

of the carts and wheels to prevent their weight

pushing the little bullocks into the river. Then the

drivers gently led the bullocks into the water about

knee deep, they were unyoked, and one dug-out was

pushed under the yoke-pole of a cart, the second

boat was pushed under the back of it, the wheels

taken off and the cart rested across the two boats

and was lashed, and the two boats tied together.

Another cart coming from the other side brought us

its pair of dug-outs, and when our three lots were

ready the bullocks were tied on behind, and the men

poled across. Sometimes the bullocks were swimming,

sometimes they floundered along, at other times they

found their legs on the sand, but they were puffing

and blowing before we landed. The wheels were

replaced and we were soon under way again.

I camped at a place called Maleri under a sacred
tree, and under which were arranged the village
gods; soon after I arrived there was a procession
to visit them. The men forming it were beating
tom-toms and they walked several times round the
tree ; the centre of attraction in the procession was a
man with a very large red and gold crinoline hung
round his neck. He spun about in a wonderful
way and danced round, salaaming all the time to
the gods or, I think, to any one else he could see.

i64 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

His black, thin, naked legs looked curious under
the half-length red skirt. I had to promise, as I
happened to be there on this grand occasion, to give
their chief Devi a goat if he gave me a tiger. I was
talking to a forest ranger, an educated man, and
asking him about these carved wooden gods. He said,
** Remember that these are jungle men. What do
they know? What is the vague idea of a god to
them? They must have a symbol, as is the case
in every religion, and they do the best they can in
carving one ; and so they have something that they
can really see and worship. Traditions are handed
down to them and they are brought up to have great
veneration for their gods : so there is nothing strange
about it.''

One night a panther came into the middle of the
village, where there was a small house built of wattle
and plaster. It had two rooms; in one a woman
and child were sleeping, and in the other several
goats were shut up with the door securely fastened.
Some of the plaster had fallen off, leaving a few cracks
and sUts in the wattle; they looked about wide
enough to let a small cat through. The panther
squeezed through one of these, killed two goats and
their two kids, and sucked their blood, but could not
manage to take any of them away through the small
hole. A sturdy little goat belonging to me was in
the place too, and he was left untouched. The
woman and child slept through it aU and did not hear
a sound, although on the wattle partition separating
the two rooms there was no plaster at all. In the
morning the woman found the goats dead. The

WILD DOGS 165

shikari said none of them had known a panther
as bold as this before, and they were all very anxious
to have him killed.

I had my machan put up in a tree directly over the
house, in High Street, which was the one and only
road through the village. The people said the pan-
ther would never be daring enough to come to the
house again, and wanted me to sit somewhere out-
side the village, but that was because they did not
like the idea of another visit from him, I fancy.
The goat was tied up in the road near the house, and
I did not go to my tree till ten o'clock at night,
and then expected to wait a long time. The village
was all excitement and the people would not quiet
down, but shouted and talked till I called to them to
be still and make no more noise. There was peace
for a short time, and then one or two of them were
so much terrified of the panther coming again that
they lit a fire close to me and threw on great bundles
of dry sticks, so that it was soon a blazing fire. That
had to be put out, of course, and it took some time
and a good deal of water before it was altogether
extinguished. I did not expect any panther would
come for hours after all this, but he was not to be
put off. A dog began to bark outside the village,
and quite soon there was a rush and a scuffle and the
panther seized the goat. There was no moon, and
I had a lantern to shine on the goat, so could see the
sights of the rifle. The panther sank quietly down
at my shot, as if he was just lying down to eat,
but he let go the goat, who jumped up, ran to the
end of its tether and stood looking on, a much

i66 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

interested spectator. The panther dragged himself
away along the road, and at the same time the whole
crowd of villagers rushed out to see what had hap-
pened, and I fired one or two more shots quickly,
for fear he should do them some harm. They
seemed to be less afraid of a wounded panther than
a sound one ! but they were delighted that the tendwa
was killed.

The goat trotted down with me to the tent and I
bathed its throat wounds with disinfectants, which
it bore very well. In the morning the throat was
rather swollen, but it nibbled some leaves. A little
travelling shop came round, in a cart, and I bought
some oil, Tilli oil, which Govind said was made from
monkey nuts, and gave it a dose, and saw to the
wounds. The following day the goat was much better,
drank a good deal of water and was quite hungry
for the leaves it was given, and it recovered. The
men looked on in amazement at all this. They said
to me, '' The sahib ties up a goat as a bait for the
tendwa, to be killed, and hopes it will be killed, and
then takes all this trouble to save its life. We have
talked about it and cannot understand. We have
come to ask why the sahib does this.'' And I could
not tell them. I allowed that it was most extra-
ordinary, and the two things were incompatible;
but I did it, and it was more than I could explain
to myself.

The goat had escaped twice, once in the hut, and
once from the jaws of the panther, so I sent for the
man who had owned it. I gave him a little medicine
for it, and some baksheesh, and the goat trotted off

WILD DOGS 167

quite happily with its master, not ever to be tied up
again.

The next camping place was close to the river
Pranhita, and one heard a rushing noise of waters
at night, where they ran down the rapids and then
flowed gently along. There were islands in the river
and otters lived on them. Two of them came and
played close to me : they scrambled on to rocks
and then plunged into the rapids, where one could
see their shiny heads bobbing up. They climbed
out, called to each other and did the same thing
over and over again. As I walked along the bank
several of them followed me, swimming along, then
landing and plunging again; when I stopped they
stopped, and it was very pretty and interesting to
watch them, and I hope they thought the same about
me.

There were a great many wild dogs in these jungles.
One morning we had gone out to see if a calf had been
taken; no tiger had come, the calf was standing
there, but there were marks of dogs all round it,
and a pack of them had been there. They had lain
and sat round the big calf for hours, to judge by the
marks on the ground, but they had not attempted
to touch or go quite close up to him. We brought the
calf back with us, and went out again in the evening
to tie up in quite a different direction. We were
walking along the Dena nullah, which, there, was
about eighty yards wide, and the bed of soft loose
sand with here and there a large pool of water.
As we turned a bend in the nullah, Moka, the shikari,
suddenly signed to me to stop : he pointed out a

i68 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

sambur hind standing in one of the pools of water,
about knee deep, at the far side of the nullah. She
was stamping her foot and splashing, and a wild dog
was sitting on the sandy shore near her and watching
her. I had forgotten to take the rifle that day,
and if I had had it should probably have fired a shot
at the dog and seen no more ; but, as it was, we sat
down in the sand under the river bank so as to hide
ourselves and to watch. After a time the sambur
saw us and trotted off into the jungle opposite,
and away from the dog. As soon as she had dis-
appeared five more wild dogs came out of the jungle
on our side, they went across the sandy nullah
into the water and were following the hind, when
one of them caught sight of our young buffaloes.
They changed their minds and came up towards
them and very near to us. They sat about and
waited for some time and walked round one calf,
at a little distance, but as we were so near they seemed
to think it was no good, gave it up, and went off
into the opposite jungle, where the sambur had gone.
Very soon we heard some howling and screaming,
and some terrified sambur calls, and back rushed
the hind down the steep bank opposite, closely
followed by her fawn with several wild dogs at its
heels. The mother and fawn dashed into the pool
only just in time, where the dogs could not attack
them (the water being sufficiently deep) without
being at a great disadvantage. In the water the
sambur stopped suddenly, at once turned and stood
at bay, with the fawn beside her. Two dogs stayed
by the pool while the others went back to the top

WILD DOGS 169

of the bank and ranged themselves at equal distances
along it, looking like sentries; they sat down to
wait, watching carefully all the time. Another
hind then appeared trotting down the bank, and she
ranged herself up at the other side of the little fawn,
giving it double protection.

One dog crossed below the water on to our side
of the nullah ; he sat down too, waiting and watching.
He did the patrol work. After sitting for some
minutes he walked the length of the pool, sat and
waited, then slowly went back to the other end,
waiting, watching. Every now and then as he passed
them, one of the sambur charged him up to the water's
edge, when he would just trot away a few yards,
wait, and come back, beginning his patrol again.
Up and down he walked, trying sometimes to drive
the deer towards the pack — they had now hidden
themselves in the jungle on the far side. When the
dog tried to drive them the sambur faced him and
stamped angrily, splashing up the water. The
little fawn plucked up courage and stamped and
splashed, imitating its mother, in a way that was
beautiful to see. But the two deer were guarding
it very carefully and kept it close between them.

This was all so interesting I had not noticed that
it was growing dark :' we must have been there for
half an hour. One of the men who had been far
behind us came walking along the middle of the
nullah. This frightened the sentry dog, who went
round the pool again into the opposite jungle. The
deer took no notice whatever of the man : they never
moved, kept to the water and fixed their eyes on

170 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

the dogs. It was time for us to go, but I wished
to get the sambur into safety first. I made a long
detour, crossed to the far side behind the pool,
and quietly drove the hinds and their pretty little
fawn out of the water, across the nullah and into
the jungle on our side — the side we had been watching
from, and away from the pack; and they trotted
off and disappeared in the trees. And I did hope
they would have plenty of time to get away after
we had gone. But what of the wild dogs' point
of view ? perhaps they were desperately hungry !

We did not tie up that night, knowing there could
be no tiger in a jungle full of wild dogs; besides,
they would probably find the calf and kill it.

When I was leaving this shooting block I had
rather an adventurous journey. To get to the new
shooting ground the Ranger told me the best way
to go was by bullock cart, eighty or ninety miles
to Chanda, which was west, go by train north, change
and go east, three sides of a square; and all this
journey when I could see on the map I could travel
north for about fifty miles and hit off the railway
at a small station called Rajoli. The railway was
in the course of making, and the trains ran as far
as this station, so it seemed absurd to go the long
roundabout way when there was this short cut.
The Ranger warned me that the road was bad,
that it would be difficult to get good bullocks,
and there would probably be many other difficulties
and no one to help. Whereas if I went by Chanda
there was a high-road all the way, rest bungalows,
and plenty of officials to help me to get changes of

WILD DOGS 171

bullocks. I had really no doubt that he was right,
but it was shorter at any rate to go to Rajoli, so I
said I would chance it.

It was cool weather, so we made a start after
breakfast, one Wednesday, expecting to reach the
Range head-quarters, that we had to pass, about
sunset. However, one of the cart wheels broke,
and we had to wait for hours ; I sat and eat my dinner
on the roadside, and we got in about eleven.

The Ranger was unfortunately away, but he had
said his guards would help me. One of them was
called to bring a fresh cart, but he sent word to say
he was not coming, and I could report him if I liked I
At this Govind and the cook went to fetch him.
One of them took him by the arm, I believe, but he
snatched up a burning brand and hit the cook over
the head with it and burnt his hands too. Arjun
stooped to avoid the blow, seizing the guard's legs,
who turned a somersault over him. There were
yells and screams from women and children, and
men's angry voices, so I went to see what was happen-
ing. The servants were standing there, Arjun
examining his wounds, and the guard was lying like
a log on the ground by the side of an overturned
bedstead, and to all appearance very tipsy. Happily
at that minute the Ranger arrived, said the guard
should be punished, and arranged another cart
and oxen for us, and we made a fresh start something
after midnight.

We travelled well for some hours and then there
was a loud crack and crash, and one of the luggage
carts broke in two and lay on the ground, the wheels

172 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

rolling away. This caused another long wait : the
guard had to find first another village, then another
cart. The unloading and loading up again took a
considerable time as well, and we started once
more. Before we had gone a hundred yards one
of the wheels of the new cart slid off, and broke the
iron pin that pegged it on. As we knew where to
find the village this time, it did not take so long
to fetch a new pin. The wheel was put in place and
fastened on, and then, with the exception of stopping
every ten minutes to hammer the peg into its place
again, we did quite a long stretch without any mis-
haps, and got to a wide river about dawn. There
was too much water for the loaded carts to get
through, so the things were taken off, and some men
who lived in a small but providential village on the
other bank came over and helped to carry the
luggage across, and the bullocks and empty carts
followed. I ordered a rest in the village, but the
servants, who had not brought enough food with them
and could get nothing here, asked if we could not
go on at once. So with some fresh bullocks we started
again, for Nandgaon, where they had been told they
could buy flour or what they wanted.

This time we travelled slowly and surely, and,
after hammering our wheel-pin in about fifty times,
reached Nandgaon in the afternoon, where every one
had a good rest and food. I calculated, from what the
people there said, that we had about ten more miles
to do to get to Rajoli station, and I wanted to catch
the train at eight in the morning of Friday : so I
settled to start at ten o'clock that night. As we were

WILD DOGS 173

starting, Govind found out that the pin and wheel
itself were now practically useless, so the kotwal of
the place brought another cart for us. Our cartmen
said their bullocks were quite fresh and could easily
do the last ten miles. However, in the middle
of the night they pulled up in a village and said the
bullocks were tired and could go no farther, and they
went t6 call the kotwal to give us a new relay.
The kotwal took some waking but eventually came,
and I asked him for three new pair of oxen. He
said there were none in the village. As this did not
sound very likely, I took a walk in the village and
opened the gates of several cattle sheds, which
seemed very well filled with cattle.

I looked in my pocket for a letter that a police
inspector had given me, with orders to the kotwals
in his district to give help in supplying transport.
I could not find it, so went back to the cart, where I
saw a copy of the Field, I tore a sheet out and held
it up before the kotwal, in the bright moonlight,
and told him to read the orders written there, and
then let me have no more delay about the business.
Of course he did not know a word of English, but
the effect was magical : out came our three pair
of bullocks, and, after some difficulty in starting
them, away we went. Not very far though, they
were absolutely raw ; for some of them tried to run
away, one turned round and looked into the cart,
and another lay down and sulked, but, by dint of
persuasion and occasional bolts, we reached the
next village. Another change here, and after a
mile, one of them went dead lame and another lay

174 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

down. We waited, and a passing cart was stopped
and the driver said he would lend his bullocks to go
the short distance if I gave him baksheesh. I gave
up counting how often we changed the bullocks;
and I wondered if they would ever get sorted right
and given back to their respective owners on their
homeward way.

At last we came out on the high-road and found
there were only four more miles to do. We had to
change raw bullocks for other raw bullocks even
there, and travelled at the rate of something less
than one mile an hour for those four miles. Of
course we had missed the morning train. We at
last arrived at the station at three in the afternoon.
I looked forward to a bath in the waiting-room bath-
room, forgetting that the railway was only just
being made; the station was a small hut about as
big as a match-box, just big enough to buy a ticket
from ; but there was a very good station-master, who
helped to get up the small tent and got water from
the engine for a bath. The train was in, and there
were only third-class carriages on it, but he had one
carriage swept out and said I could get in at once
and sleep in it.

The train started at no particular time next day,
but it did start, and travelled at the rate of ten miles
an hour, which felt like the wildest express after the
last four miles of cart. There was not far to go to
the main line, perhaps a hundred miles. I had run
out of food, so had the servants, and I hoped to
arrive at the Gondia Refreshment Room in time for
some dinner; everything seemed plain sailing, such

WILD DOGS 175

luxurious travelling, but then — well then^ the train
broke down ! It was after dark, and there we stuck
at some lone spot for hours. It was the engine's
fault, it refused to go up an incline, being too heavily
loaded. It kept on trying to whistle, but was so
husky it could hardly make a sound. After a time
it began to puff and we ran back a few yards, and
stopped again. They tinkered it up at last, and it
tried to whistle again, and after various stoppages
we ran back into the station we had left. The station-
master said he was taking off some goods wagons,
and that with luck we should get in to Gondia —
some time ! We did get there. All was dark, it
was cloudy, no moon, no lamps. The whole station
was undergoing repairs, and I got out on to heaps
of stones and mortar; the Refreshment Room was
shut up and in darkness. Govind hammered up the
refreshment man and he came, looking very sleepy.
He lit a lamp and said there was nothing to be got
to eat at that hour, but showed me a dusty row of
tins of soup. I chose Cocky-leekie, which he said
was good, and he warmed it up : the leeky part
was quite nice, but the cocky part of it was very
tough and stringy. The mail train came in at some
early a.m. time; Govind and Arjun managed some-
how, in the dark, to get all the luggage stowed in,
then all was well.

XIII

A RICKETY HAMMOCK

THE next shoot was in the Bilaspur district, and
I meant to do the first march out in a bullock
cart and then ride, but the D.S. of Pohce was
on the spot and helped me most kindly by ordering
a tonga with fast- trotting bullocks to take me out.
The consequence was that I arrived at my destination
long before the servants and kit. It was evening
when I got there and the driver set me down at the
gates of the thana, the police station. The inspector
came out to meet me, and when he heard the cir-
cumstances of the case he said that I had better stay
and sleep inside the thana, and not wait about outside
for the things to arrive. He had a bedstead brought
and put into the courtyard, and alongside was a
row of cells, behind the iron bars of which stood,
looking on, gloomy-looking thieves and murderers,
at least they looked gloomy in the dusk.

Before I could go to sleep the P.W. road surveyor
came in; he said I should be more comfortable in
his little hut, and so led me off to that and sent in a
chair and bedstead. The servants came in at night,
and next morning we started to cross the Mahanaddi, a
river which in the rains is, I should think, a quarter of

a mile or more wide at that place ; but there was not

176

A RICKETY HAMMOCK 177

much water in it now ; too much for the carts, how-
ever, and they stuck in the middle and we had to
take buffaloes out of passing carts, and yoke them
as extra ones, in front of ours, to help to drag the
carts through. One luggage cart dropped into a
hole, a foot or two deep, and the things on it were
of course soaked, especially the banjo, all the
cigarettes and a few books : the bed went under too,
but that mattered least, as the canvas of it dried in
a few minutes when it was opened out in the sun;
but the other things were not improved. The loaded
carts had an extremely stiff and rocky hill to climb
over on the march, the servants had to send for
more oxen, to help to draw, and they did not arrive
till next day. I got in early myself, as I was riding,
and a nice old Mussulman munshi prepared me
some rice, a boiled egg and milk, when he found me
starving.

When the camp was fixed up the Ranger helped
to make arrangements for shikar, and a small buffalo
was tied up some miles away. Early next day the
village shikari and I went to see the place. We
started along a broad grassy road and in the dusty
ruts we soon came on the pugs of two tigers. We
followed these up for a long way, beautiful, clear,
fresh pugs; and we walked in their tracks so long
and so far I felt as if I knew them both personally,
and that they were my tigers. We lost the foot-
marks at last, going into the jungle, and went on
and found the tied buffalo was gone; we hurried
back and ordered coolies for a beat.

On arrival in camp tidings were brought in by

178 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

the village people that one of their calves had been
carried away by a panther and they had found the
dead animal a very short distance away, and had
covered it up with branches to hide it. I went off
with them at once and we pulled the branches away
to look. No calf ! The panther had been back again,
in broad daylight, pulled his calf out from under the
leaves and dragged it away. We tracked up and
found it half eaten, a hundred yards farther on.
This time we moved the calf near to a suitable tree,
tied it with many thicknesses of rope, to a stump,
and covered it up again with boughs and leaves.
We went back quickly to have the tiger beat, and
it was a blank. It was very disappointing that my
own tigers should fail me, and after I had given them
a free dinner too, so I cantered back to be in time
for the leopard, though I thought I did not much
care whether he came or not.

We found the kill just as we had left it, so the
panther had not had the impudence to take it away
again. But he was a bold beast, for very soon
after the men had cleared away the branches that
hid the calf, and were gone, he came walking along
at a good pace through the forest and came up to
the place where he had left his dinner. He sniffed
about and seemed rather surprised not to find it
where he had left it. He then saw where it was,
and without any delay came straight up to it. If
it had been a small panther I would have waited to
watch him eat, but he was a fine one, being over
7 ft. 10 in., so I did not give him any time for that.
He fell over at the shot and as he struggled I fired

A RICKETY HAMMOCK 179

again; he jumped up and rushed, all doubled up,
under my machan, where he fell dead.

There was a great tamasha when he was carried
home in the dark. The women all came and took
it in turn to wave a little, nasty smelling oil light
three times round my face, and offered a coco-nut
to the dead panther. The men had tom-toms and
instruments of ten strings and danced all round and
shouted for I do not know how long, but until I
told them to stop.

The tiger killed again, in a jungle that the shikari
said was too difficult to beat to one gun. I do not
think that this was the real reason for not beating,
as it seemed to me a very good lie of country to
beat; but the year before two beaters had been
killed and they were all very loath to do it. They
made many excuses and I gave in, and arrangements
were made for me to sit up all night over the kill.

I think I have said I generally used a hammock
made of canvas, stretched and tied at the four
corners by strong ropes to a branching tree, or two
trees ; it was long enough to lie down in crossways,
was very comfortable, made no noise if one shifted
about in it, and was good to shoot from.

The tree the hammock was tied up in was near
the broad grass road, though some little way in the
jungle, and there was a tiny half-open hut by the
roadside. The moon was rising just before sunset
when the men left and went back to the village,
some miles away. They were not to come back
again until after dawn. The ladder I had used was
left standing by the tree, partly hidden with leaves

i8o DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

and small branches, the rifle was loaded and full
cocked by my side.

It was growing chilly after several hours of
watching, and I was just trying to put on an extra
coat very quietly, when bang went one of the corner
ropes, and down I came thump, landing on the back
of my head and shoulders (my head seems to be about
the toughest part of me — I've tested it before) on
hard dry ground and roots of the tree. It was a
funny feeling falling through the air, and there was
just time enough to wonder what was happening as
I fell : the ^ladder was fourteen feet long and the
machan rather above it. I picked myself up and
then the rifle, and neither of us seemed to be broken.
I stood and wondered for a minute what to do next,
when I heard the tiger roar at no great distance. I
thought I should have to give it up, as I could not
get hold of the broken rope to tie the hammock up
again. It was too far to walk back to camp carrying
the rifles, which I did not want to leave behind, and
staying in the little hut did not appeal to me.

The tiger began roaring again, so I climbed the
ladder, and then I thought I would look and see
what could be done for the machan. After all there
was no reason I should not continue my watch il I
could only tie it up. There was a strong loop of
rope at the broken corner, and I found the short end
of a small branch that had been cut off a few inches
from the tree-trunk. It was not in quite the right
place, but it might do ; the loop slipped over it and
seemed fairly secure, if I did not move about too
much. I climbed up and down the ladder, groping

A RICKETY HAMMOCK i8i

in the darkness of the tree shadows to find the fallen
things ; the rifles, a rug or two, the water-bottle and
the coat, and while I did this the tiger roared round
about, only at rather a greater distance. When all the
things were put back in the machan I climbed in
myself in some trepidation, but it seemed firm and
able to bear my weight. It hung in a sort of loose
bag and was most cramped and uncomfortable all
night, my shoulders were curved round and pressed
together, making me a very round back. I hoped
the tiger might come back soon, but he must have
been scared away. He must also have been rather
astonished if he had seen my fall, close beside his
kill.

I dined precariously, but as well as I could, doubled
up in this cramped position, then sat and watched.
A sambur came near and, I think, a bison, but I
could not see properly under the trees; there were
sounds of stealthy movements several times but I
do not think it was the tiger. I dropped off to
sleep occasionally, but the night was very long, and
I wished for either dawn or the tiger — the tiger for
choice.

When morning did come I was so fearfully sore
and stiff all over, but especially about the head and
shoulders, that it was with difficulty I could creep
out of my bag on to the ladder and climb down.
When the men came they had to help me on to the
pony, and I rode her home as quietly as she would
let me.

The servants were much interested when I gave
them a description of this curious little outing.

i82 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

They looked very grave and solemn about it all and
said, looking at each other, '' Han, beshak, Khuda ka
bachcha," that I must certainly be God^s '' child."

It was the Holi festival tjiat day, so shikaris,
tigers and everybody else had a holiday. There was
a great din, shouting and drum-beating all day,
going on in the village ; some of the performers came
and gave me a turn, playing and dancing and splash-
ing red paint about. They offered me a dish of paint,
so I put a red spot on my forehead.

After my fall I had a pricking when I breathed,
and was rather glad to keep quiet for a day or two
till that and the stiffness wore off; otherwise I was
none the worse, and I spent the time in putting fresh
ropes on the hammock. I do not know what made
the rope give way, as it was a very strong one, unless
the men had cut a branch rather obliquely, and tied
it round the sharp edge of it.

A new syce had come with the pony from Bilaspur ;
he was quite good at grooming her, but was very
much puzzled over a double bridle. Fanny was
brought round saddled and bridled after a fashion,
but it took some time to get things right before I
could make a start. One rein might be buckled on
to the snaffle ring at one side and the curb on the
other, besides several twists in the reins; the curb
chain itself afforded him endless amusement, but he
generally had to bring it to me in the long run. The
water-carrier was both deaf and dumb, and worked
as well or better than any one in camp ; he was always
smiling and in a good temper. He had come round
with the Maraji troupe on Holi feast day, and beat

A RICKETY HAMMOCK 183

sticks and danced around with them all, and seemed
to enjoy it as much as the rest.

We changed camp at Arjuni, and I rode there at
night. Standing in the middle of the wide road, in
front of me, I saw a big black thing, motionless,
looking towards me. Fretful Fanny saw it too, and
did not like the look of it, as she pulled up and
trembled violently. We had come up quite close
to it and I saw that it was a bison ; we all stood and
looked at each other in the darkness and then it
quietly went off in the forest.

This was a very nice camp for the pony ; there was
a river close by, and Suki, the syce, could take her
down to graze on any green thing they could find
along the banks, this being a beautiful change of
food in the hot weather, from the usual dry, dusty
bundles of grass. On the way back there was a
nice stretch of shallow river to cross, where she
would splash about and lie down and have a roll.
When I came back from my ride I often had to cross
the river and used to jump off, unsaddle, and let
her have a bath ; we often rode into the water, but
she never tried to lie down with me on her back,
however hot it was.

The Forest Ranger had two little boys and they
were sent in to ask for some quinine; one of them
seemed very anxious to say something before he
went, and too shy to say it, but at last he asked if
they might come in to hear me play the banjo. So I
gave a concert in the evening ; the audience, who
numbered about twenty, sat in a circle on the ground
— free seats. I played a great many things, that is

i84 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

to say, a few things a great many times over. I
played two breakdowns and the Dead March in
*' Saul/' as that was about the extent of my
repertoire. They did not say they were tired of it
and sat on; and when I asked whether they liked
it they said, '' Yes, better than our own music,'' and
no wonder !

When I was camping once with my brother
Herbert, we used to strum duets while we were
waiting for dinner. Two young goats that belonged
to the camp came trotting up when we began, and
sat themselves down between us and the camp fire.
We thought it was very friendly and nice of them
and that they had probably come for the warmth.
When we had finished playing they got up and ran
off. We were very much surprised when they came
again the next evening as soon as we began to play,
and lay near our feet and waited till the end. We
played the Dead March to them and probably the
same old breakdowns; they seemed to like the
classical music best, one goat nodded its head to
it and shook its little tassels, and they came every
evening as long as we stayed in that place.

A letter was sent from Maraji one evening to say
that a tiger had just killed a horse close up to the
forest bungalow — or hut would be a better name for
it — and he was sitting there eating it and would not
move, and I was to come over at once. That
sounded quite useful, and I had visions of sitting
hidden, looking out of the hut window and potting
the tiger at about five yards. I sent off the rifle,
hammock, rugs and a dinner of sorts with much

A RICKETY HAMMOCK 185

despatch, and galloped on ahead to try and find out
for myself, while there was any daylight left, what
had really happened. The Ranger, the munshi
and a forest guard or two were waiting, and the
dead pony was not lying anywhere near the hut.
I said we would go at once to find out where it was.
They seemed very uneasy and said we could not go
until the guns arrived. However, they came with
me and showed me where the pony had been dragged
down some fields to the edge of the jungle, about
half a mile, and after following among the trees a
short way, we found where the pony was lying.
The old munshi said the pony had belonged to him,
and that they had all seen the tiger take it. They
were sure they were right about its being a tiger
because they had seen the stripes ; besides, the pony
was too big and heavy for a panther to take. The
pony was quite a big one, but it was evidently the
work of a panther : the stomach was cleaned out
first and the ends of the ribs gnawed. If it had been
a tiger we should have to wait until next day and
have a beat, but as it was a panther I must make
arrangements to sit up as soon as possible.

Poor pony mare ! her little unborn foal was lying
on the ground beside her, such a pretty little foal
with short soft-looking hair, and no mark of tooth or
claw on it. I felt sure that the pony had been killed
by a panther, and said it would be no good beating
for him next day, but that I would sit up as soon as
the rifle and things came. It was now quite dark,
and as we stood discussing the best way of getting
the tiger or panther, the Ranger started, and said

i86 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

he heard a snarl in the bushes close by, and there
certainly was a crackle among the dead leaves.
Panthers are generally so wonderfully stealthy in
their movements they do not make a sound, but
this one was so bold or so hungry he did not seem to
mind treading on dead leaves. The Ranger said
it would be much better to go at once to the village
and wait there for the guns. I knew quite well
what would happen if we did this : the panther
would at once walk in, seize the pony and drag it
away any distance, where we could not possibly find
it at night-time, and that would be the end of the
whole thing.

I told them they could go if they Uked and hurry
on the men with the guns, but I should stay where
I was. They stayed too, and in the loudest of tones
began to talk : they were quite sure it was a tiger,
it was much better to go away and let him eat and
we would have a beat next day — they were willing
enough now to have a beat, or suggest having one,
although the two men had been killed in one before —
and we could go back at once. I said — and when
it was my turn to speak they coughed, cleared their
throats and made every noise they could think of—
it was a panther kill — we heard another crackle
among the leaves — and that I meant to stay and
sit up — crackle, crackle, rather further away, great
grunting and coughing from the men, a crackle now
more behind us — and that I should wait on that spot
until the guns came — crackle much nearer and on
one side. It was pitch dark and we could not see
each other. It was the men's turn to talk and they

A RICKETY HAMMOCK 187

all talked at once, saying that they had seen the
stripes on the tiger, anything, so long as they could
talk and give any excuse for returning to the village
at once — crackle, crackle, now in front, the panther
seemed to be walking round and round us. It was
really extraordinarily interesting standing there
and listening to hear from where the footfalls came.
We made plenty of noise all this time, and I should
think we had stood there an hour before we saw a
lantern coming along, and heard voices approaching
and loud shouts. My men were glad enough to
shout in reply, and they shouted vigorously too, and
in tones of relief. I dare say we were all rather glad
to stand round the light when it came.

The ladder was put up in a large tree near and
the men tied up the hammock they had just brought
with them; I do not know how they managed to
do it so quickly in the dark, and I tied the lantern
up with the white shade reflecting down on to the
pony. I climbed into the machan and told the men
to talk loudly as they went away, but I need not have
troubled to tell them that, it was a very noisy troop
that walked away, and they went very fast, but
there was more coughing than conversation.

The panther was in a precious hurry for his dinner.
No sooner had the men gone than there was a crack-
ling in the leaves again, perhaps thirty yards off, and
long before the men's voices had died away, almost
before I could load my rifle, he appeared walking
slowly into the circle of light thrown by the lantern.
I could see it was spots and not stripes he was
wearing. He stopped and looked about him several

i88 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

times, and then at the light, then he turned and
looked straight up into my tree, though as he was
in the rays of light and I in darkness I do not think
he could possibly have seen me; but he must have
heard or seen them tying up the machan. The
night was absolutely still, not a breath of wind, and
I could hear the panther breathe and I did not dare
breathe myself. He turned to look towards the
path down which the men had gone and stood
listening to their voices, while I was able to cover
him with the rifle. Then he came fairly into the
light and I got my shot, which knocked him down ;
he gave one struggle to get up, but the next shot
finished him.

I could still hear voices distinctly when I fired, but
at the sound of the shot I think the men took to
their heels and ran back to the village, which was
perhaps the wisest thing they could do.

It was a long time before they came back and
then they stood at a distance and waited until I
called out that it was safe for them to come. They
all had clubs or long sticks and beat at the trees and
bushes as they came along, which they did noisily,
they were also carrying torches with them. In the
village the usual rites were performed, a coco-nut
presented to the panther, a light waved three times
round his head, and then three times round my foot.
The men all began to disappear as orders were given
for half a dozen of them to carry the big panther —
he was 7 ft. 9 in. — back to the Arjuni camp. The
Ranger, however, collected enough of them to do
this and we all started. It was a beautiful starlight

A RICKETY HAMMOCK 189

ride through the jungle and we reached home about
midnight.

On skinning the panther in the morning we found
some large splinters of bone in the foreleg; it had
been badly broken before by a bullet and was a
good deal twisted, and the muscle was bunchy
round the place. It was completely healed though
badly mended ; he appeared to walk quite sound on
it, however.

A good many days passed without news of any
sort of a tiger, then one morning we saw the pugs of
one going very near one of the baits, and the next
day the calf was gone. I sent the shikari out to
two villages to collect coolies to beat. I have said
how difficult it was to get beaters here and how much
they disliked going through the jungles. The kotwal
at one village sent back word to say all the men were
going to the bazaar; at the other place, Kassundi,
some one had taken a wife, therefore he and all his
wedding guests could not come. I cantered over
to Kassundi, and found the bride and bridegroom
promenading in the village, dressed in bright yellow
clothes, and each had a square of some loose coloured
material over the head; one corner of each square
was knotted, tying them loosely together. I said
that I wanted beaters at once. They said that
they were busy getting married that day and the
next, and that they could not well come, and I
noticed several of the wedding party slipping away
to hide in their huts. Their excuse seemed to me
a very frivolous one, so I said how unreasonable it
was : they could get married any day, but a tiger

igo DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

beat was a most important thing. The tiger was
doing great havoc among their cattle, if we did not
beat when we had our chance we might not have
another, and I quoted their own words about him —
'' The tiger is the Raja Sahib, and obeys no one's
orders/' Besides this, the wedding feast would
be greatly enhanced, looking at it from a money
point of view, by the baksheesh resulting if we got
our tiger, or the men's pay for beating in any case,
and the happy couple would not be asked to join,
they could stay behind. They saw my point — and
we had the beat.

There was a hill on my left, and the tiger who
was there tried to sneak away over it. The wedding
party made a glorious noise, enough to turn him.
He gave a loud angry roar and a rush, and passed
me at top speed among the trees, at some little
distance — and I missed him !

I sat up that night to try for the tiger. The calf
had been half eaten and dragged under some thick
bushes, where it would be impossible to see it at
night. I wanted to find a place for the kill fairly
near the spot the tiger had hidden it, where the
moonlight would fall on it, and where there was a
tree with sufficient leaves to hide me and enough
branches to tie the machan in. The calf was pulled
along from under the bushes for twenty yards or so,
down into a stony nullah, where it was roped firmly
to the stump of a tree, and the ropes camouflaged
with dry leaves and grass. I was not at all satisfied
with my place, it was too far from the kill and there
were too many branches in the way for night shoot-

A RICKETY HAMMOCK 191

ing, but I could not better it. The moon was not
good either, it was half moon and would set about
midnight.

It was a most interesting night. I settled myself
in the hammock before sunset, and the shikari and
forest guard went off. At twilight all the various
jungle noises began : sounds that every one accus-
tomed to this sort of life knows so well. The frogs
near a tiny pool in the nullah were croaking, and
the nightjar making its curious call; the peafowl
were saying a noisy good-night to each other, and
there was a monotonous and melancholy owl also
saying a good many things in a drowsy way, and in
the same tone of voice. A few things came and
wandered about below; it was almost too dark to
see, but I think it was first a mongoose that came
and then two deer. The outline of the kill grew
fainter and fainter and the stars came out. By the
time that I can count five stars on a moonless night
I know it is time to give up and go home, as being
no longer able to see anything. There was nothing
but silence for a long time after this, and to go
back to material, but perhaps necessary things, I
was dining and my mouth was full of bread, a bit I
had quietly broken off, when I heard soft velvet
treading steps coming down the bank of the wide
nullah opposite, and saw the faint shadow of some
animal coming on into the moonlight, but only into
the moonlight for a step or two, and then under the
dark shadow of heavy trees, but it was in the moon-
light long enough to see that it was the tiger. He
went towards the place where he had hidden his

192 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

kill and must have stood there motionless for five
minutes, then he came on, still in the shadow, to the
spot where we had tied it. He had to cross a small
strip of light and then stood again waiting several
minutes, looking at the calf, although he did not go
right up to it.

Now I had arranged for the tiger not to come till
ten o'clock, as I judged that by that time the dead
calf would be in full moonlight, and now he had
come distinctly before he was due : the calf lay in
deep shadow. As far as I could see the tiger
advanced again a step or two, waited a minute,
evidently thought something was wrong, and then
quietly turned back on his tracks. Something had
put him off ; my only chance of a shot would probably
be when he re-crossed that yard or two of light.
When he was in the middle of it I shot, and he fell
into darkness. I heard him give two bounds and
he was under thick cover. He stopped and I think
fell again. I tried my utmost to make out where
he was ; if I knew at all which dark bush he was under
I might fire into it. He made another rush — only
a few yards — then fell again, and another, but this
time he lay for very much longer ; he may have been
thirty yards from me now. He wandered on very
slowly next time and I heard him lie down, where
he must have lain for an hour. Then he moved off
slower than ever, and the occasional soft crackle of
leaves grew fainter and fainter and I heard no more.
A chital gave his call of warning, as did also a
peafowl, so I knew that the tiger was still moving.
All these calls tell one so much in the jungle.

A RICKETY HAMMOCK 193

After a time some animal came up from behind
me, something of the cat tribe by the quiet steps,
and made a big circle round; then began caUing,
calling; came towards me, back, off towards the
river, round again ; a tiger calling to its mate. Then
it began to roar, sometimes very loudly, and called
round about for an hour and more. At intervals
there was more roaring farther away, until at last
it died away in the distance.

I fell asleep and must have slept for a long time
when I was awakened by a crunching of bones
underneath : the moon was gone and all was
darkness.

All I could do was to sit and listen, and I hoped
the animal might still be eating there when dawn
came. When grey light came, which it did soon,
there was nothing, so whatever it was had quietly
stolen away. Now the morning sounds began, the
peafowl woke up and bird life generally. I climbed
down and looked at the kill; it had been gnawed a
good deal along the ribs. When the shikaris came
we went to find the tracks the tiger had left. It
was exactly as I had heard it all : first the place he
had fallen in the bush and a spurt of blood there,
drops of blood where he had crawled along, and pools
of it on the ground at each place he had lain down ;
and he had stopped so many times. It was very
open jungle where we followed and the men came
on for a short way with me, then they stopped and
clustered together and would not come any further.
I wanted them to climb up trees and look well about,
feeling sure that from above they would see the

194 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

tiger lying dead. But they all went back, saying
they must have more men and buffaloes to drive
before them, and dogs as well. I suppose it was no
wonder they did not want to follow up when they
remembered the two men that had been killed. I
tracked up as long as I could see before me in the
open, and called to the head shikari to help to track
while I stood by him with the rifle ready, but it was
no good : he came for a few yards, then slipped back
to join the others. I followed blood-marks up to
some long thick grass and then turned back as I
could not go into this alone, both tracking and
keeping a careful watch ahead. We went back to
the village to collect a small herd of buffaloes to
drive into the jungle in front of us. If they saw
or smelt the tiger, they would form up and close
together ready to attack him, or be prepared for
his attack, and then one might be able to get a
shot.

As bad luck had it for mCy the Ranger was giving
a feast that day to the whole village, and the feast
had to be got through before I could get a single
man to come with me. I was bidden to the feast
too, and I asked Govind if he thought it was in-
cumbent on me to go. He thought it would please
the Ranger and the village generally. The festivities
did not begin until three o'clock. The servants took
over my camp table, chair, mug and plate, and I sat
in the Ranger's veranda ; the Mohammedan munshi
sat on the floor by me, the Ranger and his boys sat
round the corner and all the village men sat round
on the ground. The women did not eat until

A RICKETY HAMMOCK 195

afterwards, so I do not know what class I came
under.

It was a very hospitable feast and I ate as much
as I could; the munshi talked and told me the
names of all the foods and what they were made of.
There were split peas, and boiled curry and rice
with two sorts of fresh-made chutney brought on a
big leaf, a sort of pancake made with onions, sweet
cakes and sugary things, and we finished up with a
cup of sago. This all took a long time and I ought
to have stayed to have a garland thrown round my
neck, so Govind told me, and not go away in the
middle of the feast, which was rather impohte and
not the custom, but I did so want to get off to the
tiger and could wait no longer.

There was very little time to lose, as the sun was
low. The shikaris who had made arrangements
about the buffaloes had them brought, and we went
out to the place and drove them into the long grass,
but when there the men left them, and they turned
about and came back. I made them drive them in
once more ; this time we got some yards farther and
we came on quite fresh blood where the tiger had
been lying down : flies had collected and were
buzzing over it. This frightened the men so much
that they bolted. The buffaloes made no sign at
all of the tiger's presence, so he must have moved
on ; they turned quietly back again, being no longer
driven. The men huddled together behind and
watched me, they were hopeless. It was dusk by
now, so of course we had to give it up and come
home. The shikaris said they were sure the tiger

196 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

was lying close to, within a few yards of us, and
hiding, and they made no bones about it, they were
afraid and would not go with me.

I went out on Fretful Fanny in broad daylight
the next morning, to see what she and I could do
together. We rode all round the big patch of long
grass, and I could trust her to bolt if she saw or
smelt a tiger ; then we rode through it and came on
the remains of a large pig of ancient date. We went
to the spot where the last blood had been found and
to where we had tracked before, and I got off and
tried to track up. I could find no more blood and
the grass had been trampled by the cattle so that it
was difficult to make a fair start. I thought I
would make a wide cast in the open jungle in front,
so put my foot in the stirrup and jumped on to
Fanny, who had got tired of standing still. She did
wait till I was just on her back, but then started off
under a bamboo, and a low, horizontal branch
caught me across the chest and swept me off flat
on my back. I had hold of the reins still, however,
and she was kind to me and did not drag away,
and we continued our search, but with no luck. I
had another try or two after that, but never found
him and could never even find a trace of him.

There were in this district the most violent
storms that I have ever seen, and they were unex-
pected, it being the hot weather. The first one
we had came on when I was dining outside the hut.
I heard a noise like an enormous express train
roaring up the valley, then came a tremendous wind
bringing with it dust, leaves and bits of stick.

A RICKETY HAMMOCK 197

Govind seized the table, and everything else that
he could see, and took it into the hut. I stood with
my back against the door on the windy side, trying
to keep it shut. There was no rain that time and
it blew itself out in about half an hour. The next
storm was worse : for one thing the post office at
a place called Kadgi was blown away ! I never
heard where it was blown to or if it was ever found
again, but I had to post my letters after that at
another office. There was violent rain and thunder
as well. I was in my tent going to bed when the
storm burst. I held on to the tent pole and flapping
canvas, and the servants came running and held on
outside to ropes or whatever they could catch hold
of. They called for the shikaris and extra men to
help, as they could not manage alone. Then down
came deluges of rain, and one extra big squall blew
the whole tent down over me and would have blown
it quite away if they had not hung on to it. It was
pouring in torrents and I crawled out and splashed
through a small flood to get into the friendly shelter
of a hut near, soaked of course to the skin. The
servants brought load after load of dripping things
which they threw down in a sodden mass in the hut
veranda. They are good, the Indian servants, on
these occasions, never thinking of themselves and
doing all they can for one's comfort. They were
very cold, wet and miserable themselves, and I soon
found quinine to give them. They had a rainproof
place to go to, and I wrapped myself up in the shikar
hammock which had been lying in the hut, and was,
I think, the only dry thing I had. It rained all

igS DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

night and I went down in the morning to look at
the state of the river. I put an upright stick in
the sand near the bank and was interested to see
the water rising at the rate of an inch a minute.
Fanny's bathing place was flooded and she had to
find a new one, and mine too — I had a beautiful
place where a side stream rippled along under
bamboos, very shallow but away from any chance
mugger, but I had to wait till the flood subsided.

All this wet and cloudy weather had made it very
cool though it was the hot season; it seemed to be
very unhealthy, as, from this or some other cause,
illness broke out in the village ; many of the people
were suffering from a rash or pox of some description,
all over their bodies. The cows had the disease too,
breaking out under the stomach and the insides of
the legs ; goats had it and I think pigs as well ; and
even some bears that I shot looked pink and mangy
underneath. The cook stopped taking any milk,
as he said it was not safe to drink it, and our Indian
supplies from the village we could not have. Clearly
it was time to move, and the only thing to be done
under the circumstances was to end the shoot and
make for the railway.

The Ranger ordered some carts for me which were
sent to my camp loaded with logs, and the cartmen
had orders to unload the wood, and start back at
once by night with the servants and luggage. There
was a slight shower of rain and the cartmen went off
to the village to wait till that was over and eat their
food. I was called about one o'clock at night by
Govind, who said they could not start as the men

A RICKETY HAMMOCK 199

refused to come : the chaprassi and kotwal had both
been to fetch them and they all pretended to be
asleep and would not be roused. Govind asked
what was to be done next and would I come? It
was a curious little expedition ; I put on a dressing-
gown and a pair of long boots, and Govind gave me
a club to look more imposing, and we all went off
to a house where, in darkness, about twenty cartmen
lay asleep on the floor, and I really think, by their
snores and grunts, they were sound asleep by then.
The servants called to them ai^d I stirred them up
with the club and we eventually managed to rouse
them, and when they were once awake they seemed
quite willing to come. They threw off the logs,
loaded up the tents and kit and started off. I
waited to see it all done, as the servants thought the
work would get on all the faster.

We arrived at the railway after several marches,
where there was a rest house and a real stable for
Fanny. When Suki woke next morning he found a
snake curled up in a corner of the stable, close to
the pony, but he killed it before any harm was done.

I was going to England and had to leave my
Fretful Fanny again. The D.S.P. had been good
enough to promise to take care of her for me until
I came out to India again, and that she should never
be sold, but put an end to if there was ever any
occasion. There was occasion : the D.S.P. was
ill and invalided home, and the pony developed, I
think, asthma and bronchitis, so I never had her
with me again, she was shot. I rode her that last
day into Akaltara and she was as cheerful and happy

200 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

as ever, though she never pulled latterly as she did
in the days of her youth. She started by road for
Bilaspur that night, led along by the syce — a bright
moonlight night — and I watched my white thing for
a long time going down the straight road, till she
faded away in the distance.

XIV

KURUKWAHI

IT is not often that one has to complain of too
much shikar, but this day in February I saw
really more bears than were healthy. I was
camped in a place called Kurukwahi ; Abdulla went
out to visit the ties and I went out early with the
local shikari, Mahadu, for a stroll through the jungle
in search of anything we could see, the men hoping
I should shoot them something to eat. Mahadu
talked a sort of patois and I could not understand
him well, though that was not strange : I was always
stupid at languages, especially German, which was
too much for my brain, as a lazy child, with a stupid
governess : although I could say *' ein glas Bier " —
specially at Munich, and '' komm hier Schwan " —
there were some on a pond at Engelberg — quite
fluently.

I think Mahadu said if I would go the way he
directed we should be sure of finding nilgai, or blue
bull, I should say, and I tried to make him under-
stand I would not go far after them. We walked
a round of several miles and saw nothing, then as we
got to within a few yards of the edge of the forest
and close to camp I handed him the rifle, put at safe,
to carry. He was walking in front when, from under

20 1

202 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

a dark thick bush, we roused from sleep a big bear,
only a few yards from us. He sprang out at us with
a fearful roar. Old Mahadu fled with the rifle and
the bear made a start to go after him. Then he
saw me and pulled up, making nasty, angry noises
and demonstrating; we both wondered what we
should do next, and it seemed to be a question
whether he should bolt or I should; we stood and
looked at each other, then the bear did. I fancy
if I had not stood firm he would have come on.
Before I could get my rifle from the trembling Mahadu
the bear had disappeared in the bushes : such a fine
bear too 1

There was no tiger kill that day, but AbduUa
had given orders for beaters anyhow; if there was
no kill we intended to beat a hill where they said a
tiger and a bear had been driven out before.

On our way out we passed a village where we should
have found coolies ready for us, but very few had
assembled. At this place there was a gipsy encamp-
ment and the police sepai called for some of them to
come. It was amusing to see how quickly they came.
The gipsy chief came out of his ragged tent and beat
a tom-tom to summon all his troop, and at once they
came flocking in from all quarters.

The hill we were to beat was a longish one, but
not extensive crosswise. The machan was fixed up
in a tree at one end of it, on the level. Abdulla
took the men to the far end and started them off.
By and by a hyena came. I gave a soft whistle to
see what effect it might have on him ; he stopped and
looked about him and quietly continued on his way.

KURUKWAHI 203

The men came noisily along to the end of the hill-top
where it sloped steeply down to my tree. To judge
by a roar I heard, they had put up a bear. There
was great shouting and much talking for some
minutes, then complete silence and the beat stopped.
I thought that some one must have been attacked or
hurt.

After a long delay two coolies came up to say
that they had seen three bears; one had gone on,
one had disappeared and they did not know where he
had gone, and the third was hiding among some
rocks, and I was to go up with them to try and get
a shot. We went up the steep hill, near the top of
which were a lot of great boulders, awkward places
to climb without noise. AbduUa was waiting and
watching the entrance to a cave, and whispered that
the bear was in it ; we were close to it and stealthily
advanced the last few yards. The mouth of the cave
opened downwards and I peeped in and could just
distinguish a black mass in the darkness below.
I shot into the middle of it ; there was a grunt, and
what with dust and smoke and the echoing of the
shot I could see or hear nothing more for a time, but
stood at the ready if the bear should come out.
When I could see I fired again and saw it was dead.

Then arose a great clamour and two poor cubs
that I had not seen set up a tremendous yelling. I
was starting to climb down and catch them, but
AbduUa said they were too big for that, and would
bite, so we climbed round the big rock to try and find
another way in. As we went along AbduUa silently
pointed out the paw of a bear in another low cave.

204 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

I thought it was the dead one and that this was the
side entrance, and was just going to walk in when
they shouted to me to stop. This was another bear
altogether. I retired quickly ! but they wanted me
to shoot into the hole. As nothing was to be seen
but a black paw, shooting was out of the question
from where I stood. The men were all shouting at
the top of their voices and I could not make myself
heard for a minute. When there was silence I said
I would climb over the rock above his lair, and they
must throw stones in from high rocks opposite. I
put my foot upon a stone to climb, found I wanted
both hands to pull myself up, so handed the rifle
for a second to a coolie.

I fancy the sudden silence and quiet made the bear
think that now was his chance for escape. At that
critical moment I saw his head and shoulders appear
from his sheltering rock and heard a terrific, angry
roar. There were two other ways open for him to
get away, but he came straight for me. There
was a small opening behind me that perhaps I
might have jumped into backwards, but the thought
flashed through me, '* Don't go there, it is probably
the cave he is making for.'' I was facing him and in
an instant he had knocked me flat on my back,
seized my thigh in his mouth and was shaking and
worrying it as a terrier does a rat.

I had fallen between two rocks with my heels
rather higher than my head, and I think that this
knocked my topi right over my eyes, as I saw nothing.
The bear dropped my leg, I felt that, and then came
for my head — this a man told me afterwards —

KURUKWAHI 205

seized the topi in his teeth, missing my head and face,
and made ofi with it in his mouth, probably being
amazed at the ease with which a human head comes
off. All I knew was that there was daylight suddenly
and the bear had gone. The whole of the affair
took, I suppose, only a few seconds. There was no
time to feel frightened and the mauling to my leg
was absolutely painless.

I jumped up at once and my first thought, I
remember, was thankfulness that he had not torn
my eyes out; as jungle people tell one that bears
always go for the eyes first, or else eat one's brain,
and then '* they know you are dead " !

The men, with looks of alarm, had crowded round
by now and seemed greatly relieved when they saw
me standing up and laughing, which I could not
help doing — it all seemed such a funny thing to have
happened, quite natural, and all in the day's work.

The man close to me, who was holding the rifle,
was safe and had jumped aside behind a rock;
besides, when he passed him, the bear's mouth was
full of hat ; he brought the rifle up to be unloaded.
I was standing in the sun and told AbduUa to find
my topi. The bear who had gone off with it in his
mouth, they said, had carried it some distance before
he dropped it. It was brought back rather mangled,
with teeth-marks through it. I sat down feeling
rather faint, supported by Abdulla, but soon felt
better, and thought it was about time to look at
my wounds. There was a scratch on my ear, but
whether it was done by bear or rock I don't know.
I ripped up my knickerbockers from the knee, with

2o6 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

a kattiy a big, rough, sickle-shaped knife, made for
cutting branches away, that had been given me by a
friend as a mascot I The teeth had gone through the
fleshy part of my leg, rather deep, half-way between
the knee and hip, missing the bone, and I poured
water into the wounds from my drinking bottle, to
clean them out. Of course I lost a good deal of
blood and felt rather faint again before I had
finished.

The men carried me down those difficult rocks
very carefully and well, handing me along from one
to the other, holding me under the arms and knees
without hurting ; they fetched a light bedstead from
somewhere and carried me to camp. There was a
fine long procession before we got in, for one or two
villages we passed joined in, and the forest guards
also, and men from the police post. Arrived at
camp, I syringed out the wounds with disinfectants
and filled them with some blue cotton-wool. Then
it seemed about time to lie down.

Two watchmen were told to sit up outside the tent
at night, in case I wanted anything. They went to
sleep — very sound sleep too — but Govind came in
the middle of the night and said they were all very
sad and wanted to send for a doctor ; might they ?
I thought I should be healed up in a few days, but he
insisted, and the chaprassi went off fourteen miles,
to Garchiroli, to fetch him. I know I woke up very
cold in the morning and the wounds began to be
painful, but a hot-water bottle soon put that right.

There was a hospital at Garchiroli and the apothe-
cary. Rattan Lai, came out during the day and did

KURUKWAHI 207

some dressing. He said the treatment I had given
was quite right, but the holes were deep; two long
teeth had met and made a tunnel through. Those
were easy to deal with, but the other two were long
and deep and separate, and would take some time
to heal, so he strongly advised that I should come in
next day to his hospital, and he would go back and
get a room ready for me.

I had such uncomfortable sheets that night, while
my own [were being washed : two very stiffly
starched and thick table-cloths, borrowed from a
rest house.

It was an easy journey in the next evening, in a
bullock cart, on a nice bed of straw, and the doctor
had his biggest room cleared out ; a square high place
with thick walls, and nice and cool. My camp
things were put in and I was very comfortable
there, thanks to Rattan Lai, who was most careful
and attentive. He came in each day to do dressings,
and brought his books of anatomy, with illustrations
of arteries and sinews and muscle, to show what an
excellent spot the bear had chosen, to do me the
least possible damage. If he had bitten me on the
knee I should have been lame for life ; or an artery,
I should have bled to death, and so on. It was all
very interesting.

Govind did his best ; he used to come in and put
everything I wanted where I could not reach it, and
the things I did not want close round the bed, and
he meant so well. Abdulla, who was one of nature's
gentlemen, was always on the spot when I called;
and the lazy chaprassi brought me a present of a

208 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

walking-stick he had carved himself, to show his
sympathy. I was rejoiced that I could have my
bath, which Govind put alongside the bed, and I
could manage to drop myself gently in, avoiding
wetting the bad leg, and then drying myself in
sections.

After some days Rattan Lai, who talked some
English, said, '' The cavities are beginning to fill
in and growing up to the mar-r-r-r-gin ; there is
now no danger-r-r-r.'' But he told me afterwards
he was still afraid of blood poisoning and only said
this to cheer me up !

Two bears were heard fighting near, one night, but
AbduUa remarked, we could not put up a machan
for a beat, even in the veranda. The two little
bears they had caught and brought in ; one was soon
ailing, though. They were brought into my room,
with bits of rope round their necks, but were too
fierce to handle ; the ailing cub soon died, and after
that his brother collapsed suddenly.

The better the wounds got the more they hurt
during the dressing, the doctor kneading them rather
violently with his thumb, to increase the circulation
at the '' margin,'* he said. It gave me fits, but I
told him to carry on if it was for my good and I
would keep quiet. One day I could stand it no
longer, so he gave up that part of the business. He
promised that I should get out in ten days ; when the
ten days were up he said seven more, and so on,
which he said he did to keep me quiet.

One night a cart came creaking in very late;
there were stifled cries and groans, and a poor woman

KURUKWAHI 209

was carried into a back room. Two village buffaloes
had been fighting, as they were driven home in the
evening; one of them ** fieddawaay," as the doctor
put it, and the other turned on the woman and
attacked and tossed her. One horn ran into her
body. They picked her up and tried to fasten a
bandage tightly round her, and so to bring her in,
ten miles, in a jolting cart — the only thing available —
to hospital. The bandage sUpped and when she
arrived the poor thing was in a terrible state. There
was moaning, gentle moaning, all night long. The
doctor tried to perform an operation, but found he
could not do it alone, so sent for another apothecary,
miles away, who could not arrive till late the next
night.

When the doors were all opened in the morning
I could hear the crying more distinctly and she
seemed to be in such fearful agony; it all sounded
so hopeless, poor thing ! poor thing ! She got so
much worse and sinking towards evening, the doctor
said he must try an operation at all costs. His
compounder must give the chloroform, and he wanted
two more hands besides his own to do anything to
be of any good. I had naturally offered to come and
try to help him, but he demurred, and said he would
have his assistant ready first and then let me know.
They started, but very soon Rattan Lai came to ask
me if I had any brandy. Before we could pour
any out the assistant came running, to say that she
was dead.

Her relations were allowed in and stood round her,
wailing. In another half-hour a sad little funeral

210 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

party started for the burning, four men carrying the
dead woman on a stretcher, and one woman walking
alongside, wailing and beating her breast. She
looked so tiny and thin, lying there, wrapped in her
red sari. Then the wailing died away in the distance.

I had been in hospital a month and it was settled
that on the following Sunday I should be fit to get
up and go into camp once more, but on the Friday
the nice kind police inspector came to see me. He
said :

*' Why don't you send on the shikari first to go
out and tie up, and stay on here until there is a kill ?
The doctor says you should not go yet and he doesn't
like to tell you so, and at the same time does not
want to disappoint you. You would be much better
for his care for some days longer. What good will
it do going out? "

I was about tired of bed, but he and the doctor
had talked it over together, and what he said was
such sound sense that I gave in. After a few days
Rattan Lai came in, and said I might get up next
day and walk round the bed, and see whether I felt
any ill effects, or if I had a stiff leg. So quite early
I got up and started on my journey round the room :
I was lame, but that seemed to be all. It was dull
work walking there, so I called to Govind and told
him to have the pony saddled. He stared at me,
looking quite scared. I said it would be all right,
I was not going far and the pony boy was to come
with me. I dressed, Joggins was brought round and
I mounted from the veranda steps. It was quite
delightful to be out again, in the fresh morning,

KURUKWAHI 211

though I only rode for a mile or two at a walk.
When the doctor came in I told him.

*' Yes, I saw the mem-sahib out of the window, and
was very glad she did it on her own responsibility,
as I dare not give permission."

Soon after this in came Abdulla : a panther had
killed a calf about ten miles away, and he had brought
a cart ready to fetch me. The road was bad and we
went slowly. I sat up till dark close to a small
pool. Nothing came excepting some peafowl, and
three chital stags, for a drink. I got home and found
the doctor very kindly waiting up to bandage my
leg — he said there was improvement, and the exercise
had done me good — and I dined at i a.m.

I had not seen a white person for months, and two
sahibs on their way to shoot called on me one day
and asked me to dine. This I much wished to do,
but I had just undergone the kneading process,
which always left me in much pain for several hours,
so I could not go.

News came of a tiger kill rather late one day, and
several miles away; there was no time for a beat,
so Abdulla tied up the hammock in a nice spreading
tree over the kill. It was not exactly the place I
should have chosen myself to sit up in. The tree
was growing at the bottom of a nullah that had
steep high banks : the nullah side was excellent,
and all that could be desired, but on the other side
the bank was just level with the machan and within
a yard of it, so that all that one had to do to get in
was to give one step off the bank and there you were.
A narrow path ran along the top, the sort of nice

212 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

sheltered path a tiger might choose, should he chance
to come from that side, and we should then meet
at extremely close quarters, too near to be pleasant.
I sat with my back to the path so that I might
watch the kill in the nullah, and glanced rather
furtively over my shoulder now and then. After
all the nullah was his likeliest road, but one never
knows.

After a time there was a rustling in the grass and
leaves below, and I saw, on the ground among
brushwood, a long black and yellow striped thing
that, for the first moment, I felt sure was a tiger's
tail. It moved, and I saw it was a large fat snake,
about nine feet long, with a small head and biggish
body, and it crawled along half into a hole, then out
again : it was just a tiger's colour, black and yellow.
I hoped it would not want to come and climb my
tree ! However, neither snake nor tiger came my
way; nothing but a grey jackal, and I was rather
reUeved when darkness came on that it was time to
whistle for the men and get away.

The tiger came after I had left and had a feed, so
we beat next day. As I was rather lame I could not
get about well enough to settle beforehand where I
should sit, and when I had climbed into the tree that
Abdulla had chosen, I noticed red ants running up
it, and pointed them out to him. He said it was all
right, there were only a very few, and they were
going up side branches that did not matter. I took
precautions, however, to have a coolie with me — a
thing I never do — to beat them off if they were
troublesome. They were I They soon began to

KURUKWAHI 213

run all over him and he was busily employed slashing
them off with small branches. Then they extended
their travels over me, down my neck, in my topi,
sticking their nasty little sharp nippers into my hands
and face. The coolie slashed at me too, but it was
impossible for him to keep them off. The rifle was
crawling with them, I could not touch it, and the
water-bottle was a mass of red things. I could
stand it no longer, no more could he, and we clambered
down, he, valiantly, seizing the rifle. He ran and I
limped for our lives, to get out of the tiger's way, and
outside the jungle they were beating. The coolie
ran on and called to Abdulla to stop the beat, but,
after all this noise and commotion, of course there
was no tiger.

There was a great fire in Garchiroli that night,
bright flames and much shouting, and several huts
were burnt down, but not much property lost.

At long last Rattan Lai said I might really go, pro-
vided my camp was within a few miles of hospital,
so that he could come out occasionally to see if all
was going on well ; and he supplied me with bandages
and dressings, and gave many instructions. I had
spent over five weeks in hospital and I could not
have found any one more painstaking and attentive
than he was.

I had my camp at the place I had been trying for
the tiger before, and rode out. It was a great
pleasure to be really in camp once more, and sleeping
under the stars, with Leo straight overhead. We
tried time after time for this tiger, beating, sitting
up, but he always evaded us. Abdulla tied in the

214 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

same place each evening, the bagh would dine at my
expense and then effectually hide himself. So I
gave orders that a new spot was to be found, and
suggested it should be at the other side of the dry
river bed. In the morning AbduUa brought the news
that the calf had been taken again, and from the
same place. I was very angry : it was an impossible
jungle to beat with any chance of success, I thought,
and sitting up for a tiger I had always found was a
hopeless job. No beaters were available that day,
all having gone off to some bazaar, nevertheless
I sat up for some hours ; but after I had left he came
back and had a square meal, and the vultures
finished up the remains.

I was still in a bad temper next day when I
ordered men to beat, being sure there was not the
ghost of a chance of the tiger staying in that jungle.
I rode Joggins out as far as he was allowed to go;
he was sent back for fear the sound of his hoofs
should disturb the jungle. I was carried along the
loose, deep sand of the river bed and, myself, chose
quite a different place for the machan. The beaters
had been left behind and the man who was carrying
my second rifle had gone with them, rifle too ! I
was Grosser than ever then, and when he came back
with it, trampling through the middle of the proposed
beat, it was the limit, and I began to lose all interest
in the proceedings, feeling sure no tiger would lie
up through all this.

When the last of the men had gone, I noticed a big
hanging swarm of bees in a tree close by : if, under
such impossible circumstances, the rifle should

KURUKWAHI 215

happen to be let off the noise might drive the bees
out, and as they would probably come for me — what
fun I should have with them ! But as some one
once said, " I have lived to be an old man, and have
had many troubles, most of which never happened ! "

The beat soon began, a short, easy one, and I
caught sight of some animal through thick cover,
that I thought was a grey monkey, moving very
slowly well ahead of the beaters. Then it stopped,
with a Uttle grunt, that sounded more like a tiger
after a good feed than a monkey, and angry at being
disturbed. The next thing I saw was a tiger's head
appearing from behind a large tree, about fifteen
yards off. He waited there. I fired and he dropped
dead. I kept the rifle up to my shoulder, ready to
shoot if he stirred, when a second one came from
behind the same tree, following close and at once in
the tracks of the first, and it was he who fell to the
second barrel. He opened his eyes once, and looked
up at me — we looked at each other — and I felt
quite sorry — quite sorry, only in one way, and in a
way that is always unaccountable to myself — as
they lay there close together, looking like the babes
in the wood.

The first was a tigress and the other her cub, about
as big as herself; neither was a big one. Abdulla
said he had disobeyed my orders, as he felt sure that
by far the best place to tie up the calf was in that
same nullah that I so much disliked, in fact it was the
only good spot about there ; and it was also near to
camp and easy for me to get to. It was quite time
then to make my apologies to him, and tell him that he

2i6 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

was right after all, and I utterly wrong/which rather
embarrassed but pleased him.

The flies in this camp were horrible ; eye-flies and
a nasty, nimble, sprightly sort of house-fly that
never left one alone by day, though happily they
wanted a time off at night, for rest. The mangoes
were in full bloom then, which may have attracted
them.

There were no signs of any tiger anywhere near,
so I left there, staying for a night again at Garchiroli,
as I passed through. Before I left. Rattan Lai
asked me if I would mind coming to a pan supari
party he wished to give me. Then he wrote a
note '' requesting my company to tifiin, at 3.30.''
I went to his house when he said they were ready,
and found, in the middle of the room, a large chair
covered with a lovely brilliant green cloth, stitched
in many colours ; a small table in front of it, some
sugar and a cup of milk on the table, and, incidentally,
a dead fly in the milk, but that was soon fished out.
The doctor had an untapestried chair in a far corner,
and his mother, aunt, wife and a tiny child were
standing in a row, besides a babe in arms, all looking
on.

They gave me a very nice tea, and I asked if he
and his family would not join. He said, if I would
allow, he would have some tea in his corner, after I
had begun, but the '' females " would eat afterwards.
The biscuits were quite good, but one sort was
sweeter than I liked, and I had taken more of it
than I could manage. I did not like to leave it,
so shoved the last bit into the baby's mouth, which

KURUKWAHI 217

I thought was rather resourceful, and I hoped might
be taken for a polite attention. I carefully looked
the other way after that, so that the mother could
take it out if she thought well.

I left Garchiroli that evening and was very sorry
to see the last of Abdulla, whose work was only in
that district.

I did no good at the new camp : we could not find
any tracks of tiger and the weather was getting very
hot for a tent. There was a nice forest bungalow
at one place that I stayed in. A great jungle fire
was raging from the district of Ahiri northward,
miles and miles of it, they said : and one of our
buffaloes had been tied up in that direction. At night
I saw the flames being blown along very fast by the
wind, which had changed,;towards the spot it was on.
I was much afraid the calf would be burnt to death, so
told the shikaris to go and loose it and bring it in.
They were afraid of going into the forest at nine o'clock
at night; but they thought better of it when I
prepared to go and they found one of them would
have to go too, to show the road and carry the
lantern. So they set off armed with spear and light
and brought the little beast back. In the morning
we found the fire had burnt right up to the spot on
which it had been standing.

This was a pretty camp with a large pond in front,
and big red water-Ulies growing high out of the water
and white ones lying on it. There was a mugger
living in the pond, that the people were anxious to
have killed, but it seldom showed itself. Joggins
and I used often to ride down to the wide nullah.

2i8 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

which was mostly dry, but there were nice pools
of water in it. It was refreshing and pleasant to
sit and look at the cool water and the beautiful
reflections of green trees in it — the few that had any
leaves left on them. Joggins seemed to take more
interest in any blade of grass he might find than in
the scenery.

A goat was killed one night in the jungle by a
small panther, and the shikari chose the funniest
place for me to sit in. I do not know how high up
he had fixed the machan, but I thought I should
never arrive at it. There was one fork of the tree
about ten feet up and no other branches for ten feet
more. They had brought a ladder and I reached the
first landing-stage easily, and then asked what was
to be done next. They pulled the ladder up and set
it in the fork, nearly perpendicular, and I climbed
the second storey, holding on very carefully to the
tree as well as the ladder. There was a higher
climb then among the branches, and this was not so
difficult altogether, but when it came to descending,
after dark, by the same route, it was rather precarious.
And all this trouble for a small panther who never
came back.

On a beautiful starlight night I lay outside the
bungalow watching brilUant flashes of lightning
playing continuously in the far-distant horizon;
and the lightning was going on when I went to
sleep. After a few hours came a fierce gust of wind
which tore out the mosquito curtains, and they
streamed away like a flag. Away went the top
sheet, and I was nearly blown away with the under

KURUKWAHI 219

one. Some heavy spots of rain followed and I held
on to what belongings I could until the servants
came running round. They carried the bed into the
veranda with all speed, and I brought on anything
I could find. Another enormous gust came, and a
cloud of dust and straw was blown into our faces;
there was a crash and half of the thatched roof of
the bungalow was torn off, and that, with many
pieces of wood and lath, landed on the very spot
my bed had been standing. Then down streamed
deluges of rain, and it was difficult to find a dry
corner in the house anywhere, for shelter. The
servants' houses remained standing, happily.

My shoot was coming to an end, and, as storms were
beginning and a tent uncomfortable, I gave it up and
started for Chanda, the nearest town, about eighty
miles away, and several days' march. I travelled
by cart at night and had to pass through a cutting,
sheltered by dark, overhanging trees. My cart was
in advance and the cartman pulled up and said we
must wait for the other two carts to come up, as
there had been a mail robbery there a day or two
before; one man had his leg broken and the other
was badly hurt in trying to save the mail-bags.
The thieves, after securing their loot, got away.
His voice was shaking and he seemed really frightened,
but was cheered at the sight of my revolver, and the
other carts and servants driving up. As we drove
through the place they all talked very loudly and
continued shouting and coughing for some time
afterwards, though there were no highwaymen this
time.

220 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

' I was leaving for England, and on the ship were
two cold and shivering little cassowaries, being sent
home to the Zoo. They were rather unhappy at
times, when we were rocked too violently in the
cradle of the deep — more than was pleasant for
anybody — but they grew so friendly they would
come and sit close to me, with a bit of skirt over
them, and seemed to enjoy the warmth.

XV

FAILURES

I WENT again a year or two later to shoot in
the Central Provinces, or to try to shoot I
should say, as everything I did went wrong
and there was nothing but disappointments and
disasters, though I saw some tigers; in fact, things
went so badly for me that I wrote some sad verses
on grief and disaster which I set to (banjo) music,
in a very minor key and sang Adagio, molto lamen-
toso, con-all-the-expression-I-could-put-into-it when
feeling at my lowest.

The ship going out to Bombay was terribly
crowded, but that of course was the same misfortune
for everybody. There were nearly five hundred
children, and parents to match, and there was no
room to sit on deck with any comfort. Being so
crowded together should have kept us warm, but
it was very cold the early part of the voyage.

On landing in Bombay neither of my servants
was there to meet me as they had promised : Govind
was too ill to come at all and Jiwan, the old cook,
only met me a week later. I went to my agents
to ask for my letters which were to tell me where I
was to go and shoot, but by some mistake they had
all been forwarded to England. After many quips

221

222 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

and quirks (whatever they may be) I fell on my feet,
and some kind friends in Nagpur took pity on me,
arranged everything for me and started me off on
my shoot. I had had hinges put on my wooden
boxes so that they might be handy for the servants
to open and shut, as they often had to pack quickly
for a march, but the customs people, after rummaging
in them, had hammered many nails in, especially
on the hinge side, instead of replacing the screws,
so it was with difficulty that we could open them
at all, and then with everlasting damage to the hinges.
The first camp I went to was on a high-road where
roamed a tiger whose custom was to spring on a
bullock being driven along in a passing cart, and drag
it off. The tiger always chose a dark night, and
of course the cartmen were able to do nothing to
prevent it except to give up travelling on moonless
nights on that part of the road that ran through
jungle. I often had a try for him, but he was always
too wary. I drove through his- piece of hunting
ground one night, but the cartmen were in such a
panic of fear that they shouted and galloped their
bullocks aU the way, although I was ready with the
loaded rifle, so the tiger had no chance of getting his
dinner. I could not get beaters in this jungle, and
as the tiger had killed a calf near a village I sat up,
meaning only to wait a few hours, as there was a
very poor moon. It was getting low in the sky
and I could scarcely see, so I called for the shikaris,
who were waiting at a distance, to come and put the
ladder up for me to climb down. I called again;
no answer but the eternal silence, the beautiful

FAILURES 223

starry silence of the Indian jungle at night, broken
only occasionally by the cry of peafowl or deer or
night birds. Then I whistled for the men, then I*
yelled — ^which broke the beautiful silence unpleasantly
— but could not make them hear, so I lay down in
the machan to sleep. I was soon awakened — after
all this noise too — by the gentle rustle of a leaf, then
the crackling of bones, and I suppose the tiger was
there, but the moon was setting and some clouds —
which had no business to be there at all at that time
of the year — blew over and obscured what little
moon there was, so there was no tiger for me that
night, as he was away before dawn.

Then a much sadder thing happened : a very fine
tiger came out one evening, to my amazement, in
daylight, before the sun had set, a thing I had never
seen before and probably never shall again, and I
was not able to get a shot ! That was most tantaliz-
ing. The place was quite lonely, far away in the
jungle, and the bullock that had been killed was
lying partly covered and hidden by bushes. There
was a very convenient tree near it for the machan,
and forest in front and on both sides of it, but behind
was a wide open grass glade. We were rather late
and hurried in putting up the machan, but I com-
plained that the tree was very open behind me as
there were no branches there and no leaves to hide
me, so that from the rear I was very much exposed
to the view of any animal coming from the open bit
of grassland. The shikari said that the tiger was
sure to come by way of the jungle in front, looked
rather scornful at my poor ignorance and asked

224 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

what tiger would come walking out in the open when
he could steal along hidden paths. Of course it
was much more likely he should come through the
trees and scrub, but I told him that all the same I
must really have a few branches tied up behind me.
He said there was very little time ; chopping boughs
and then fixing them up would make so much noise,
and that the tiger who might be coming at that
minute would be sure to see or hear and be frightened
away. I found we were making more noise talking,
though in whispers, and arguing about it all than
perhaps it was worth, so, against my better judgment,
I gave in and the men went off.

I had to keep a look-out on all sides at once and
it was not so very long before the tiger appeared
from the open, rather behind me on my right.
He was forty yards away and walked along boldly,
and if I had dared to move I should have had a
beautiful shot at him, but I dared not wink an eye.
I could see him over my shoulder as he came quite
near; he stopped for a short time and then came
and stood behind me, not venturing at once up to
the kill in front. I could not see him at all now,
as I did not dare to turn my head and only knew he
was there by an occasional soft purring that he made.
There we both were, within a few yards of each other,
waiting, waiting, and he must have stood there for
half an hour to judge by the sun. I sat deadly still,
hoping every second to see him walk out in front
from under my tree. At last, as I had heard no
purring for a long time, I turned my head very
sUghtly and quite silently I thought. The tiger

FAILURES 225

was away at a gallop long before I could swing round
or bring the rifle up to my shoulder. I ought not
to have stirred, so I dare say this was all my own fault,
but he was frightened away and never came back
to the place : such a chance as it was to miss !

Another time as I sat watching over a kill a tiger
came but never showed himself. I knew of his
presence by the swearing and chattering of many
monkeys that were there. They had all been busy
eating berries that grew on low bushes around, and
some of them were on the ground, when I saw them
suddenly starting to swing themselves up trees. I
heard the tiger make a dash at something with a snarl
and a low growl, and following this was the rush away
of monkeys who were scolding and using abusive
language. The tiger was certainly very angry
about something, so were the monkeys, so was I :
the monkeys swore, I swore (in undertones), and the
tiger simply cursed. One baby monkey grew very
much excited and chattered in a funny, shrill Uttle
voice, trying its hardest to imitate its parents.
Perhaps the monkeys gave me away by making the
tiger look up, as after prowling round for a long time he
went away without my catching so much as a glimpse
of him, and afterwards we saw the tracks of where
he had been wandering about in the sandy nullah.
He was supposed to be a man-eater that had killed
a boy a short time before near this spot.

My tent had been pitched, unknowingly, in a hot-
bed of scorpions, and the boy was constantly finding
one or two as he swept it out in the morning. I
found one in my slipper, but luckily dropped it before
Q

226 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

I put my foot inside, when this beast ran out. When
we changed camp there were still scorpions lying
hidden in the folds of the tent and in my boxes,
and it was a marvel that no one was stung.

After several more disappointments with the tigers
in those jungles I went to another district to shoot,
with hopes of better luck. The march out was very
hilly and the road very bad, but I had a glorious
pair of bullocks that tore along, shaving comers
and bumping down into rocky streams. They did
their twenty miles in about six hours and, as usual,
I reached the place where we were to camp long
before the servants and kit. A forest officer and
his mother were in camp there and very kindly gave
me tea and dinner. They had a fox terrier and a
monkey, and on my arrival the monkey was told
to make its salaam; it came up rather shyly and
kissed my foot and then went and sat with its arms
round the terrier's neck : they seemed to be great
friends.

The next march took us to the shooting ground,
so I gave up the sportive bullocks that had brought
me along so well, and rode a good little chestnut
pony that I had hired, called Thomas. There was
a tiger kill one night and the calf was half eaten;
the remainder was carefully and neatly covered up,
and completely hidden, with dead bamboo leaves
which the tiger had raked together so that it really
looked as if he had every intention of coming back,
but I had no luck that time. After some days he
killed again in a different place which was a very
good one to beat, if we could get enough coolies.

FAILURES 227

Nanur, the guard, had ordered men the day before
to be ready to beat in case there should be a kill,
as we should not have time to collect them in one
morning. They came, I saw, but the tiger conquered,
as he had a good dinner and escaped unharmed.
It was an ideal place to beat, a valley with hills
all round and a nullah running straight up to my
tree, down which I could see a long way. There
was an open stretch covered with thick high grass
on my left, and it looked unlikely that the tiger would
try to go through that, but men were placed in trees
along the edge of it to stop him if he should want
to break through there. After the beat began I
saw the stops climbing down from their trees and
moving about, and I watched them grouping together
and going off to the top of a small hill, to be out of
the tiger's way ! I could not of course shout to them
to stay where they were, on account of making any
noise. There were two tigers in the beat ; one broke
away through the side at the start, so Nanur said
afterwards, and the other came briskly trotting
along in the nullah straight for me. This reaUy
looked hopeful. He came steadily on until within
eighty yards, then suddenly turned, jumped up the
nullah bank and disappeared into the long grass,
towards the trees the stops should have been in.
That was the last I saw of the tiger, and there was no
movement in, or waving of, the grass as he passed
through it to show his whereabouts. He went near
the men in trees on the hill and they did not attempt
to turn him, though they made plenty of noise and
great demonstrations to try and turn a poor scared

228 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

deer that ran past them — this against orders of
course ! — there was a great difference between that
and the stern silence with which the tiger was let
by. It was most annoying, and one might as well
beat for a tiger down Piccadilly as with these sort
of men, though the remainder were doing their
best.

When everything I tried went so wrong for me I
began to feel that I really was *' Champion, in this
Scheme of Frustration," as I remember '' Punch "
once neatly put it. I must own, though rather
against my will, as it tends to spoil the record for
'* Champion,*' that I had shot a good tiger in the
first district, though without an incident worth
recording, and now, soon after my unhappy beat,
when sitting up over a calf that had been killed by
these same two tigers, I shot the tigress that came
out just at dusk.

The shikari and guards came with torches after
hearing the shots, and I went back to camp with them,
leaving the dead tigress lying there until next day.
In the morning when we went to bring the tigress
in we found that the tiger had come and had been
feasting on the calf, only a few yards from his poor
dead mate who lay stretched there. I decided on
another night's sitting up; the remains of the two-
days-old kill, as it was in the hot weather, were
impossible to sit over for obvious reasons, so they
were dragged away for the vultures to finish and a
small buffalo calf was tied in its place. There was no
moon, so I could only hope for a shot before dark
or one at dawn. I saw or heard nothing in the

FAILURES 229

evening, and the calf, I think, spent a happy and
peaceful night, lying down and sleeping. A little
before dawn I heard a sambur give its warning call,
and soon afterwards the sound of a short heavy
rush of some animal and a roar. There was no sound
of a struggle, no other noise of any kind, and the calf
was killed — the whole thing took perhaps two
seconds. It was quite dark and I could see nothing
below, but by the sounds following I think the tiger
was drinking the blood. He did not settle down to
eat at once, but I could hear him wandering round,
and he stood for a time in the place the dead tigress
had been lying, which had been taken back to camp
in the morning. There was a little swish, swish
of the long grass as he came through it, back to the
kill where he now began to feed. There seemed to
be a faint shadow moving, but nothing that I could
really distinguish; and which was tiger and which
was the dead calf I could not make out. I waited
and waited, longing for a streak of dawn which would
not come. I thought I should be foolish to shoot
in the dark when probably a few minutes more
would give me a fair shot : I looked up at the sky
and the stars were certainly fading. Come dawn !
it never dawned so slowly before. There was just
a faint streak of grey, my rifle was at my shoulder,
but when I picked it up I found that a small fork
of white paper I had fastened most carefully, as I
thought, to the foresight to give me a guide for a
night shot, had gone, torn away I suppose by a branch
or something it must have brushed against. I gave
one more glance up at the stars and then looked

230 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

down on the tiger. I saw a shadowy white thing,
his face and whiskers, and I think he was looking up
at me, but he was off and away before I could pull
the trigger and I fired into the grass that he vanished
into. I think I missed and we found no blood tracks
when the men came, nor could we find the bullet
mark in the ground.

When we got back to camp we found that the
useful little pony, Thomas, had disappeared. He
was always allowed to graze in the fields, watched
over by a small boy who had the charge of him and
my calves. The boy had let him graze away into
the jungle out of his sight and was afraid, I think, to
tell of it at once when he could not find him, so
that some little time elapsed before a search was
made. Men were sent out in all directions to look
for him and he was tracked through the jungle for
some miles in the direction of his home forty miles
away — then all trace was lost. He had a rope
round his neck with a long end dragging, and I was
much afraid he might get entangled among trees
and be starved to death. The police made all
inquiries at the neighbouring villages and also at
his home, but they could hear nothing of him, and
they said it was not possible for him to have been
stolen without their getting information. We never
heard of the pony again; the shikaris said he must
have been killed by a tiger, but I Uved in hopes of
hearing news of him for a long time. It was a sad,
unsatisfactory end to poor Thomas and a great loss
to me. The owner wrote to say that the pony
had never come back, and he asked for the price of

FAILURES 231

him, plus ten rupees, which he charged '* for the
pony's death, on account of the fright it gave him ! "
On leaving this camp we made a night march to
a place where there was a small bungalow to put
up in, which was cooler than a tent in these hot
days. Jiwan came to say that everything was
ready if I would come and get in my cart. I found
there were no ropes for the luggage, and none of it
had been tied on. The men in this part of the
country make very strong ropes of thinly spHt
bamboo which they twist up in their hands, and I
had often sat and watched in admiration the
making of them; so ropes were sent for from the
village, the things tied on and then there was more
delay : the cartmen had thought fit to go off to
eat their food ! After some time they came back
and the bullocks were yoked. One of my pair
jumped about, went off with a rush, nearly upset
the cart and then broke away and bolted. It took
an hour to find another, as the guard said we must
not put the runaway bail in again, he was such a
badmash. At last we started in bright moonlight
and got along well for a time. We had to go down
a long steep hiU which led after a very sudden turn
into the wide rocky bed of a dry nullah. I was in
the leading cart and after many bumps and jolts
got safe over and up the other side. Then there
were sounds of a cart and oxen rushing down the
steep road, great shouting among the men, and down
raced the bullocks much too fast to be able to turn
at the sudden bend; more shouts and yells at the
bullocks, then a bump and a crash, and after that

232 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

dead silence. My cartman jumped out and ran
back and I followed him. One of the carts lay
upset on its side, wheels off, all the boxes and
luggage strewn about, and two men lying as if they
were dead, having been shot off the top of the
loaded cart on which they had been perched, on to
the rough rocks. Several other men were scrambling
on to their legs and the oxen apparently were none
the worse. The jumble of broken cart, overturned
kit and disabled men made a sad weird picture
among the black rocks and undet the shadow of
trees.

I went up to one man who was lying very still
and saw that it was poor old Jiwan. I spoke to
him and it was a great relief to hear him able to
give an answer; he half tried to rise when I came,
but could not move, and I told him to lie still. He
said he had been thrown from the top of the cart
on to his side and hip and that his back was broken.
He looked desperately pale and ghastly in the
moonlight that showed in flecks through the trees.
The sepoy was the other man that was hurt, he was
lying against a rock with a big box across his legs
and was groaning now and then. None of the
cartmen were much hurt, they had been running
with the cart and trying to hold it back. We were
fortunately near a village and the men went up to
fetch a charpai to carry Jiwan there. We lifted him
on to it; his back was not broken, but he could
scarcely move. He was taken up and laid on a
bed of straw in the veranda of the kotwaVs house;
and the charpai went back for the sepoy, as it was

FAILURES 233

the only one they had, so they said. There was
nothing I could do for them after I had seen them
(un) comfortably settled, and they did not want
brandy or anything I could give them, so I went
down to finish my night in the cart.

In the morning Jiwan and the sepoy were both
terribly stiff and in great pain, though the cook was
much the worse of the two : he said I could do him
no good, the kotwal would look after them, and
they would sooner be left to lie still and follow me
when they were able if I would send a cart back for
them, so I took the guard and my smaU boy and
went on the last few miles to the bungalow. On
the way I saw a tiger sitting lazily out in the open
— a wide grassy glade several hundred yards away
— sunning himself. He had not seen us and I let
the driver go on a short distance to where we were
hidden from him, meaning to stop and run up the
hill above him to try and get a shot, but two of the
men behind me had seen him too, and stood looking
and pointing at him from where he could see them,
so the tiger got up slowly, looked at them for some
little time and then sauntered away through the
grass and was finally lost to sight among the trees.
I suppose that was the same tiger that eluded me
in the early dawn; I often tried for him again but
never got him.

I rather wondered how I was to live after poor
Jiwan's accident; the boy knew nothing about
cooking. I thought perhaps I could boil an e^g (if
I could get one), or porridge, or a potato, though
the only time I had ever tried to cook a potato the

234 I)AYS A^D NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

bottom of the saucepan fell out; anyway it was
much worse for Jiwan than for me. A Mussulman
overseer who Hved a mile away heard about the
accident and came to help me. He was very good
and sent me cooked food for some days, and then
sent his own cart, with a thick bed of straw in it,
to bring the cook and sepoy when they were fit to
travel. The boy and I unpacked the cracked and
broken boxes and found that a bottle of chutney
and also one of lime-juice had survived the disaster !
But the chutney, I found next day, was a seething
mass of drowned or struggling cockroaches that had
found their way in through a hole in the cork.

Poor Jiwan would come the first minute that he
was able, he had a miserable drive and had to be
lifted out of the cart and laid on a charpai ; I made
him some tea and put something to eat near him
which he might not touch, because of his caste, but
I knew that when I had gone and no one was looking,
he would not be able to resist the tea at any rate.
He was a wonderful old man and managed to crawl
about somehow and would persist in cooking my
food however bad he felt. The sepoy was much
better and able to walk.

There was no more sport after this : the Forest
Guard, Nanur, who had been a soldier and fought
and was wounded at Armenti^res, I think he said,
was down with the fever; the shikari had a dread-
fully swelled face and toothache and could do
nothing; several of the village men were ill; and
I damaged my foot and could not get about. For
several weeks we had a very sad camp, one of the

FAILURES 235

calves, used as baits, died, and Jiwan grew thinner
every day and had constant fever. I shot a peacock
so that he might have some soup, but I think he
was too ill to eat. The monotony was broken one
evening by a bear visiting the camp; it came close
up to the cook-house and Nanur came running to
fetch me, but by the time I got there some clever
man had hghted a flaring torch, to show me the
bear ! he said ; in reahty he was so much frightened
he dare not wait in the dark until I came, so of
course the glare had driven the bear away.

We managed to tie up for the tiger once more
when the shikari was sufficiently recovered. I sat
in a tree all night and a violent storm came on, so
that I had to pull a rug over me and put a water-
proof sheet on the top, quite covering me and a
multitude of sins, and I slept. Invariably I wake
at the first streak of dawn when sleeping under the
sky, but because I had this wretched rug over my
head I slept ten minutes too long. A distant noise
woke me, I think it was the rumble of a cart on the
road not far away. I sat up and there was the tiger,
who seemed to have just come to the kill. He also,
I think, had heard the cart, as he was standing
looking in its direction ; he was gone before I could
get hold of the rifle, and it was all my own stupid
fault.

When so many things went wrong I had to con-
sole myself with the thought of some philosopher's
story — I forget who — of ancient days, which ran
something like this : All the people in a certain
country were suffering under so many troubles that

236 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

they could bear it no longer; so each one took his
pack of sorrows on his back and went off to market
to sell or exchange it. There was much bargaining
and haggling and, as each found there was no one
worse off than himself, every one went home again
with his own burden !

We made all preparations to start back for the
railway and home. Storms were beginning, and the
rains expected, and we hurried our marches back, as
we had a river to cross which the guard said might
soon become flooded.

The first march we travelled straight on all one
night and day and, as there was no other prospect
of a wash, I bathed in the river when we came to
it. The stretch of sand that had to be walked over
was so hot and burning from the sun it nearly
blistered my feet, and then there was deep black
mud to wade through before getting into deep water,
so for purposes of cleanliness I don't think the bath
was an improvement ! I tried to persuade Jiwan
to go into hospital until he felt better, but he was
anxious to go back to his home and friends, so went
off at once by train, and I have heard since that he
has quite recovered.

Another accident happened on the way down to
Bombay when the mail train was pulled up rather
suddenly. We had run over an Indian woman who
was walking along the line carrying a big bundle of
grass on her head. Her feet had been cut off, and
she was just breathing when the guard picked her
up and laid her at the side of the line with her grass
bundle beside her. She died in a few minutes, and

FAILURES 237

when her friends had come to carry her away the
train proceeded on its journey.

That was the end of disasters, I think, unless what
happened on board ship could be called one. People
were calling out for beef-tea one rough day, and there
was none to be had : on inquiry it was found that
some sufferer had sent a hot-water bottle to be filled,
and by some mistake it was filled with all the avail-
able beef-tea ! Ship life for passengers, generally
speaking, seems fairly dull with nothing much to
do, so one takes amusement in small things. But I
remember one time when we were to pass Messina,
soon after the great earthquake, a friend and stable
companion of mine, Mrs. Stevenson, and I were
anxious to see what we could of the ruins, and as
we were to pass the place about four o'clock in the
morning the captain said he would give a shout to us
through our deck cabin window when we came near.
Major B., who also wanted to get up and see, asked
us whether we should mind waking him, and he told
Mrs. Stevenson where his cabin was and also his bunk,
which was next to the door. About four in the
a.m.'s we heard the captain's voice shouting, *' Now
then, girls, get up, here is Messina ! " We were by
no means girls, though I should only speak for
myself, but we got into our dressing-gowns quickly
and went out to see all that we could, which wasn't
very much. As we were going back to our beds we
remembered that we had promised to wake Major B.,
and Mrs. Stevenson said all we had to do was to walk
down the companion and say *' Major B." at the door
of cabin No. so-and-so, when he said he would be

238 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR

certain to wake immediately. So we groped our
way in semi-darkness down the stairs and up to
what we thought was his cabin. Mrs. Stevenson
called '' Major B.*' in gentle tones; no answer, but
four snores, all in different voices, and we did not
recognize any of them. We both tried again a little
louder, with the same result and same snores. Mrs.
Stevenson said, *' He told me which was his berth,
ril give a tug at his sheet.'' The slight tug was no
use at all, so she gave a harder one. Then came a
very angry voice, '' Who's there, and what the devil
do you want? " The voice we certainly did not
know, so we fled, and, on safely reaching our cabin
again, we laughed so much that the inhabitants next
door battered on the wall and told us very fiercely
to ** dry up " and let decent people go to sleep I

On the ship were two missionaries, who one day
were having a deep religious discussion ; I was sitting
with my back to them and looked round once or
twice as they waxed furious. They did not seem to
agree with each other at all, and grew more and more
earnest and vehement in the argument. They were
standing some yards off when they began, but the
missionary furthest away drove his adversary back
and back, until he backed him up to my chair, where
he had to stop. Without looking round he seized
the woodwork of the chair in his hands, clutching
and jerking it rather uncomfortably for me, and
then, not knowing in the slightest what he was doing,
he seized my head in his hands, behind his back,
and rubbed my hair vigorously round and round, till
I felt rather like a mop. I bore it for some Httle

FAILURES 239

time, as it seemed to amuse the onlookers, then I
moved my head sHghtly and he looked round at me.
He was the picture of horror and stupefaction, and
when I asked him, quite civilly, if he had found my
hair nice and soft, he simply vanished, without a
word of apology, and I do not remember ever seeing
him again during the voyage.

240

GLOSSARY

arak, native liquor.

badmash, rascal.

hagh, tiger.

hail, bullock.

bandobast, plan, arrangement.

chapatti, flat cakes of unleavened bread.

chik, grass blind.

chil, kite.

chaprassi, messenger, orderly.

charpai, rough bedstead.

chuldari, small single fly tent.

dandi, portable hammock.

gussa mala, bad-tempered person.

jhul, rug or coat for horse or dog.

jonk, leech.

kael, ibex.

kart or tahr, wild goat.

katti, rough iron knife.

khansamah, cook.

khatiya, bedstead.

khidmaigar, table servant.

khubber, news, information.

khud, precipice.

khud stick, alpenstock.

khulgaur or kulga, bison.

kotwal, village policeman.

lumbar dar, village headman.

lota, metal pot.

machan, platform.

munshi, teacher.

mugger, crocodile.

nilgai, blue bull.

GLOSSARY 241

patel, headman of village.

sari, long strip of cloth worn by Indian women hanging

from the head.
sepai or sepoy, Indian soldier or policeman.
tamasha, show.
tendwa, panther, leopard.
thana, station (police).

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