THE TIGER. 69 



ball passing close to the mahout's ear, whose situation, poor 

 fellow, was anything but enviable. As soon as my Elephant 

 was prevailed upon to leave the killing part of the business to 

 the sportsmen, they gave the roughly used Tiger the coup de 

 grace. It w r as a very fine female, with the most beautiful skin 

 I ever saw." 



Although in this instance the whole party escaped scot-free 

 from the Tiger's charge, such encounters are decidedly risky, 

 and should be avoided when possible. On this subject Colonel 

 R. H. Percy writes as follows in the "Badminton Library": 

 " To hear of Tigers making good their charges and springing on 

 to Elephants' heads sounds very nice and exciting, but nothing is 

 more demoralising to the Elephants, especially at the beginning 

 of a trip, and every precaution should be taken to save your 

 Elephants from getting mauled ; for, if injured, many of them 

 never recover confidence, and become absolutely worthless for 

 Tiger-shooting afterwards. Forsyth mentions an instance of 

 an Elephant dying of wounds received from a Tiger. It is all 

 very fine for a sportsman to take a charge, standing in a howda 

 perched on the back of a large tusker ; but it is a very different 

 thing for the opium-sodden nerves of an unarmed mahout 

 riding a small timid pad-Elephant. Close order is the only 

 safe formation for pad-Elephants, and should invariably be 

 adopted. If the Tiger is marked into a particular bush, the 

 line may be halted, and the howda-Elephants alone be taken 

 up to engage him ; but until the mahouts have thorough con- 

 fidence in the guns, a fight is better avoided." 



Our account of the Tiger may be brought to a conclusion 

 with an extract from Dr. John Anderson's narrative of the 

 expedition to Western Yun-nan, relating to the boldness of a 

 man-eater. " While we were at dinner one evening at Bhamo," 

 writes the narrator, "a cry was raised that a Tiger was in the 

 town, and we at once started with our rifles, and were met by 



