CHAPTER II 



HAPPY DAYS AS AN ASSISTANT 



Sport as an Assistant in Chota Nagpur — Game animals in the forests and 

 open country — ^The man-eating tiger- — Two men killed—An un- 

 successful quest — The cattle killers— Sit up for them — Other efforts 

 to meet tigers — M.'s adventure — Leopards — Hyenas, wild dogs and 

 jackals — Stalldng sambhar in the hills — Abundance of good heads — 

 Sambhar and the mhowa flower — Shooting sambhar in the rains — 

 Set out to find a stag — Death of the big stag. 



jA S an Assistant in the Chota Nagpur Jungles I had 

 /% the time of my Hfe. Although bison were my 

 / % first love, and remained my last, my attention 

 -^ -m. was not confined to this fascinating animal from 

 the hunter's point of view. It was the accident of my first 

 posting to this fine country which enabled me to participate 

 in a sport which many good shikaris only enjoy at the end 

 of their time of service and then often only as the result of 

 a specially planned trip and the expenditure of many hard- 

 earned rupees ; whilst the vast majority probably never 

 have the chance of seeing a bison at all. Even in these 

 jungles, however, I could not spend my days in the one 



IS 



