22 SAMBHALPUR, HARDA, DELHI, PETERHOF 



in captivity, but wild they are a source of peren- 

 nial joy. I almost forgave the troop which cost 

 me my tiger, they were so diverting : wise-looking 

 old ones, flighty young ones, babies all on the 

 jump, literally, and all hopelessly idiotic. A 

 monkey is a human idiot, only more human. 



When they turned my tiger, they looked at my 

 glasses and said to each other, " What a funny old 

 monkey this is ! He has got glass eyes " ; and they 

 stared and jabbered till one of them missed his 

 hold and had a heavy fall, whereat they all shrieked 

 with terribly human laughter and tore away, 

 leaping from tree to tree. Quite the Banderlog. 

 Then come the peacocks, any number of them, 

 strutting about followed by their peahens. They 

 look superb when flying through the air high above 

 the trees. The small birds are very beautiful. 

 One finds oneself surrounded by golden oreoles, 

 blue jays, black-and-white minas, brilliant king- 

 fishers, and any number of little dots of life and 

 colour. 



When one is after tiger, one may not, of course, 

 fire at anything else, so wild-boar, bear, leopard, 

 and every kind of deer pass by quite unaware of 

 one's existence and showing themselves under 

 perfectly natural conditions. 



I had the chance, a rare one, of seeing a whole 

 family of hunting dogs. Papa was, alas ! shot by 

 another gun, but Mamma and four puppies passed 

 right under me, so frightened, so tired, so hot, with 

 long, wet, red tongues hanging out. They were 

 mixed up with a wolf and a jackal, which is very 

 unusual. 



The jungle itself is not beautiful. It is too 



