HAPPY DAYS AS AN ASSISTANT 23 



been given. I had a rifle in my hand at the moment and he 

 soon got his from a forest guard who was carrying it. On 

 the advice of one of the local forest staff we made for a 

 ravine down which it was thought the tiger would move 

 if he had not been frightened enough to make a clean bolt. 

 We took up positions about one hundred yards apart, 

 commanding the approach. I was squatting on top of a 

 ten-foot rock, and before long began to doubt seriously 

 whether I was sufficiently safe should I only wound the 

 beast. We sat in our positions till dusk, but no tiger 

 appeared, and we found subsequently that he had come 

 down into the nullah much higher up, having kept to the 

 forest on the hill for some considerable distance. It was 

 some time before M. got over that experience. 



The district I am writing of swarmed with leopards in 

 those days. Practically the only sure way of bringing them 

 to book, and that was by no means a certainty, was to sit 

 up over a goat — I never would sit up over a dog, even a 

 village pi-dog, as some men did — and try and kill the 

 leopard before he killed the goat, if he made up his mind to 

 attack it. But so cunning is this beast that in numberless 

 cases he smells a rat when there is no seemingly apparent 

 cause, and refuses to come up to the scratch. I did my 

 share of this sitting up in my salad days, probably as much 

 as most youngsters, and I enjoyed it immensely and cer- 

 tainly learnt a great deal by doing it. But it must be 

 admitted that once the novelty had worn off, and I really 

 loved it at first, I got horribly bored by the monotony of 

 it. It was all right so long as dayhght lasted. There was 

 plenty to watch in the jungle round about. But at night 

 in the fitful moonlight the strain of trying to decipher 

 objects was wearisome, and when the fight with sleep 

 began it became painful. In spite of the drawbacks, for a 

 number of years I enjoyed it very much. 



Of the other carnivora hyenas were 

 plentiful. I was never drawn to this 

 animal, for his furtive ways and his 

 diabolical laugh used to make my 

 blood run cold when going through 

 my first experiences out in the 

 jungle in camp by myself. In fact, 



I think the satanic laugh of the "^ "^ 



hyena and the mournful dirge-like wail of the jackal used 



