102 BAY OF BENGAL TIGER-DRIVING 



youth void of understanding disposed. " Now 

 let me show you what I have done/' the young 

 man remarked with some pride, and to my horror 

 and utter dismay he showed us paths cut through 

 every covert, trees felled " where they were likely 

 to be in the way," grass beaten down " to make it 

 easier to get along," and to cap all he had erected 

 seven of the most grotesque machans I have ever 

 had the misfortune to set eyes on. 



What he had succeeded in doing was to clear 

 the ground of every mortal thing which might 

 have been on it. For an accursed week he had 

 had some thirty coolies at work chopping, digging, 

 shouting, lighting fires and I know not what else. 



Mercifully I was too crushed to speak. Had I 

 been able to do so, my language would doubtless 

 have brought on a thunder-storm. 



The machans which had been erected were a 

 sight for the gods. There were seven of them, all 

 erected in the very places which should have been 

 left severely alone for a tiger to creep along. All 

 were actually above the sky-line, regular scare- 

 crow sky-scrapers, calculated to clear the country 

 of game of all kinds and quite impossible to shoot 

 from. I think they must have been 50 or 60 feet 

 in the air. To complete the disastrous arrange- 

 ment, huge ladders of staring yellow bamboos were 

 fixed against the trees, quite enough in themselves 

 to turn any beast. The poor youth had had the 

 sticks of the trays laid all one way instead of 

 butt to base, and had used thin, dry, brittle sticks. 

 The whole machine was as dangerous as it was 

 useless. 



He induced me to climb up into one, and pointed 



