The Tiger 223 



herd appeared, however, to daunt the snarling vixen ; at 

 their rush she would bound back a few paces, crouch down, 

 growl, and be forced to move back again, before the short, 

 blundering charge of the crowd. 



" All the old cows and calves were in rear of the herd, 

 and it was not a little comical to witness their awkward 

 attitudes. They would stretch their ungainly necks, and 

 shake their heads as if they did not rightly understand 

 what was going on. Finding that if they stopped too long 

 to indulge their curiosity, there was danger of getting sep- 

 arated from the fighting members of the herd, they would 

 make a stupid, lumbering, headlong rush forward, and jostle 

 each other in their blundering panic. 



" It was a grand sight. The tigress was the embodiment 

 of lithe savage beauty, but her features expressed the wild- 

 est baffled rage. I could have shot the striped vixen over 

 and over again, but I wished to keep her for my friends ; 

 and I was thrilled by the excitement of such a novel 

 scene. 



"Suddenly our elephant trumpeted, and shied quickly 

 on one side from something lying on the ground. Curling 

 up its trunk it began backing and piping at a prodigious 

 rate. 



" ' Hallo ! what's the matter now } ' said I to Debnarain. 



" ' God only knows,' said he. 



'"A young tiger! Bag/i ta bntcha,' screamed our 

 mahout, and regardless of the elephant or our cries, he 

 scuttled down the pad rope like a monkey down a back- 

 stay, and clutching a young dead tiger cub, threw it up to 

 Debnarain. It was about the size of a small poodle, and 



