hundred of them. We drove them into the place where the tiger had disappeared, and very soon they began making a fearful bellowing and uproar. We watched, and could see no signs of him; we left our machāns, and running down, drove the buffaloes off. They were snorting near his dead body. He was only about a hundred yards from the place where he had charged us last night, and he must have died soon afterwards. He was a very heavy old male, measuring exactly nine feet nine inches in length. And so the poor native's death was avenged! We found out then, of course, where our bullets had hit him; his first wound was through him, behind the shoulder, but too low. We looked at his massive paws: a tiger can with one blow of his paw stun an ordinary-sized bullock, or crush its skull. Those long white teeth, too! Like a cat he springs upon a man, seizing the shoulder in his mouth, while his teeth penetrate right through chest and back to the lungs, at the same time tearing the man's head with his claws. We had had no ordinary escape. Captain F. superintended his skinning; we had some lunch, paid the coolies, and then about four o'clock J. and I went out alone for a stroll with one village shikari. We climbed a steep, rocky hill about a mile behind Cherla; it was a "tigerish" spot, and of course we carried guns. Tigers are met with so unexpectedly that it is wise never to walk in jungles frequented by them without a loaded gun or a rifle in one's hand; a shot in the nick of time will very probably either stop or turn a charge. We were walking very quietly along the side of the hill, and about thirty yards above us, almost at the top of the hill, were some steep rocks. Under one of these, in the cool shade, sitting in a recess which he had partly grubbed out for himself, the shikari, who was in front, suddenly saw, looking at us, a large boar. From his expression he wanted but slight provocation to induce him to charge. No animal exceeds the pig in ferocity, nor equals him in courage and determination. Once roused, nothing upon this earth will stop him, and he will boldly charge the largest elephant who may have disturbed him without further provocation. This boar was an enormous brute; if only one could have had him on an open plain, where, with a good horse and spear, we might have had a fair fight! The shikari, of course, stopped, whispered, and pointed. We were right below the pig, and dare not fire from there, for we should have had to shoot right uphill and straight at his head, and supposing he was only wounded or missed altogether, he would to a certainty have charged down upon us and a charging tusker is no fun. Pretending, therefore, not to have seen him, and half retiring, we climbed sideways up the hill, till we were almost at the top, about twenty yards above the pig, and fifty yards on one side of him. Still he sat on, perfectly indifferent, not caring twopence, and now giving an easy sideways shot. J. fired, and he sprang out, falling dead, at the same moment; but such was the impetus of his spring, and so steep was the hill, that he went off, hurtling down end over end like a hoop, and would most certainly have gone straight to the bottom had he not fetched up against a tree. There he lay, behind a broad trunk. He had a fine and most formidable pair of tushes, sharp as razors, protruding nearly three inches from his great jaw, the remaining two-thirds being imbedded in the jaw itself. We left him there and walked back to Cherla; then sent the shikari and six coolies to bring him home. The pork we distributed among the villagers. About this time it became very much hotter than hitherto, and until the end of our two months the heat really was intense; 115° in the shade in our tents was the highest, and I assure my readers that sometimes it was awful. There was often a strong wind, but it was so burningly hot that it only made matters worse. At one camp we built a little hut with thatched straw sides, and made coolies pour water over the straw every hour, keeping them soaking wet; and then, as the wind blew through, it got cooled and was quite fresh inside, though the cool, damp air attracted hordes of insects. I used to soak a handkerchief in water and put it in the crown of my topi, resoaking it at every pool of water we ever came across, even though it was very far from cold. |