MACHANS 103 



with the air and attitude of a Napoleon to broad 

 naked patches of ground which no earthly tiger 

 would dream of crossing, and proudly remarked 

 that his machdn commanded "all the open ground." 

 It commanded all the open sea as well, for that 

 matter. 



Opinions vary as to the safe height for machans. 

 I myself utterly disbelieve all the stories told 

 about tigers springing up at or on to machans 

 or climbing trees. 



The first and natural effort of a wounded tiger 

 is to get away. It is when he is shot at again, or 

 followed or cut off, that he charges. But in any 

 case a badly wounded tiger would be quite unequal 

 to cb'mbing a tree or " springing up into " a 

 machdn. 



For ordinary mortals 10 or 12 feet is, I think, a 

 perfectly safe height. Additional feet to be added 

 at a progressional rate for all that is especially 

 precious e.g., women, etc. till the regulation 

 25 feet for a sacrosanct Viceroy is reached. 

 Personally I like to be about 10 feet up, but I have 

 been quite happy at 5. Tigers seldom look up and 

 rarely see anything 5 feet above them. 



Obviously a machdn should be so constructed 

 and placed as to look as much as possible like an 

 integral part of the tree. In a treeless bamboo 

 country the only plan possible is to erect a tripod 

 of three solid bamboos. 



On the whole, unless the wait is likely to be a 

 very long one, I prefer a light ladder of incon- 

 spicuous material tied against a tree-trunk. One 

 can quite well sit on and shoot from one of the 

 top rungs. It can be made in situ, is easily carried, 



