THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESENTED BY PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID A SPORTSWOMAN IN INDIA A SPORTSWOMAN IN INDIA - - - "PERSONAL ADVENTURES AND EXPERIENCES OF TRAVEL IN KNOWN AND UNKNOWN INDIA j» By ISABEL SAVORY WITH FORTY-EIGHT ILLUSTRATIONS AND A PHOTOGRAVURE PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHOR London: HUTCHINSON &? CO Paternoster Row j* j»* 1900 Philadelphia: J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY PRINTED BY HAZELL, WATSON, AND VINEY, LD. LONDON AND AYLESBURY. Co ETHEL MARION HICHENS I OFFER THIS BOOK ; WHEREIN ARE TO BE FOUND "THE INCURABLE ILLOGICALITIES OF LIFE, THE FATHOMS OF SLACK, AND THE MILES OF TEDIUM." S33 CO NTE NTS CHAPTER I PIG-STICKING PAGE The Taj— A Total Eclipse— Mian Mir— Visit to Kapurthalah— Pig-sticking— The First Spear— An Ugly Customer— Back to Lahore . i CHAPTER II PESHAWUR AND THE KHYBER PASS A Day with the Peshawur Vale Hunt— The Native City— Through the Khyber Pass — Lunch in Camp on Active Service — General Hart's Brigade— AH Musjid— Khyber in Old Days . 37 CHAPTER III FROM DALHOUSIE INTO CHAMBA Up to the Hills— Dalhousie— Leopards— The Rains— Expedition into Chamba — Monkeys — Kudjiar — Rajah of Chamba — Arrangements (bundobust} for our Shoot . . . -75 CHAPTER IV CHAMBA INTO KASHMIR Unexplored Mountains — Our First Red Bear — A Narrow Escape — Tahr— Difficult Climbing— Our Bag— A Sad Accident . .in vii viii Contents CHAPTER V KASHMIR PAGE From Dalhousie to Kashmir — Our Start from Gulmerg — Baggage, Caravan, and Retainers — Magnificent Scenery — The Zoji La Pass — Mountaineering in Kashmir — Ascent of the Silver Throne — Glaciers — A Near Shave 145 CHAPTER VI FOURTEEN THOUSAND FEET HIGH Yem Sar Pass — Marmots — In a House-boat — Srinagar — Suffering Moses — Shalimar Bagh — Woman as a Traveller — In Camp Again — Native Servants — Black Bears — No Luck — Pine- martens 179 CHAPTER VII BLACK BEARS Two Bears in one Beat — A Coolie Mauled — After Bard Singh — Road to Gilgit — Tragbal Pass — Gurais — Gaggai Nullah — Snowed up — Quit the Passes — Nanga Parbat — Snow-line Left Behind 217 CHAPTER VIII TIGER-SHOOTING Down to the Deccan — A Tiger Shoot— The March— Khubr— Into Position — A Tree-climbing Tiger — A Merciful Escape — A Splendid " Great Cat "—Heat and Famine— We walk a Tiger up for the First and Last Time — Death of Beater— Return to Civilisation 251 CHAPTER IX SNAKES. DELHI Experiences with Snakes — Cobras — An Inevitable Death — Delhi — The Ridge — Mutiny Days — John Nicholson — Palace of Great Moguls — A Native Pageant — Kutab Minar — A Deserted City . 285 Contents ix CHAPTER x OOTACAMUND AND ANGLO-INDIAN LIFE PAGE From Delhi to Ootacamund— The Nilgiri Hills— Tropical Vegeta- tion— The Todas — Anglo-Indian Life — Reasons why Natives so Impoverished though India Itself Wealthy Country . . 323 CHAPTER XI FROM AN ELEPHANT KHEDDER TO A CROCODILE TANK In Camp Again — An Elephant Khedder — A Memorable Night — The Elephants Pass the Rubicon— Guests of the Rajah of Mysore — Seringapatam — Tippoo's Summer-house — The Cholera Bungalow — Guindy — Crocodiles — A Horrible Expe- rience—The Priest and the Crocodile— Crocodile Tank at Kurachie— Native Letters . 353 CHAPTER XII IMPRESSIONS OF TRAVEL Home — Reminiscences — The Imperishable Legacy — The East no More — Advantages and Disadvantages of Travel — Honour to those who Stay at Home 393 CHAPTER I PIG-STICKING The Taj— A Total Eclipse— Mian Mir— Visit to Kapurthalah— Pig-sticking— The First Spear —An Ugly Customer— Back to Lahore, CHAPTER I PIG-STICKING Not see ? because of night, perhaps ? why, day Came back again for that ! before it left, The dying sunset kindled through a cleft : The hills, like giants at a hunting, lay, Chin upon hand, to see the game at bay, — " Now stab and end the creature— to the heft ! " ROBERT BROWNING. IT would be absurd to describe the journey out to India ; as well might one launch forth into impressions of Piccadilly from a hansom, since half society has already been bored by the voyage to the East, and the remaining half still more bored by reading accounts of the same. Suffice it to say, that we shook the dust of the P. & O. Egypt off our feet on January I4th, and landed in Bombay, — in India, with its two hundred and eighty millions of inhabitants, and its area of one and a half million of square miles. " The Land of Regrets is a country to visit, but not to live in ; parts of it, from a shooting point of view, are of course Paradise — it is all of it more or less interesting to see, the hills are full of fine scenery, and if a tour there includes Kashmir, the traveller's cup will not be an empty one. But India in the hot 3 4 A Sportswoman in India weather is a very different place to the white-faced Europeans whom the want of the rupee keeps in their stations. Along the dusty, split, and parched plains, the thermometer at one hundred and two degrees — The cattle reel beneath the yoke they bear, The earth is iron, and the skies are brass. Of this side, as a rule, the traveller sees nothing. At present the Punjab claimed us, and the only place at which we stopped on the way north was Agra. Leaving Bombay on Sunday evening, we arrived there on Tuesday afternoon ; and as it was of course com- paratively cool, drove off at once to see the building of which Lord Roberts writes : " Go to India. The Taj alone is worth the journey." Built by the great Mogul Shah Jehan in 1630 to the memory of his wife Nur Mahal, the " light of the palace," the Taj Mahal, " the tomb of Mahal/' is not one of the " sights " of India, but one of the wonders of the world. It was twenty-two years in building, though twenty thousand workmen were employed every day ; and it is said to have cost considerably over forty millions of rupees, even in days when labour was all forced. But such a sum is easily accounted for by the marble and jewels alone, which came