THE BIOGRAPHY OF A TIGER 49 



The very next night it was that the tiger, slowly per- 

 ambulating the bottom of a wooded ravine on his starlit 

 beat, rounded a bend to find a small dark animal staring 

 at him from the fringe of the trees. As he halted, watch- 

 fully, he became aware that it had the enticing smell of a 

 domestic cow but the sombre hairy skin of a sambar ; 

 and it emitted a feeble squeaking grunt as it faced him, 

 rearing with a little struggle backwards, as if its forefoot 

 were somehow caught, and it could not escape. Filled 

 with deep suspicion, the tiger backed down out of sight. 

 After some time, however, he began very silently and 

 slowly to circle round through the jungle, scenting warily 

 as he went. In course of time he had approached from 

 another quarter with such absolute stealth, that when he 

 caught sight of the strange creature once more, he found 

 that it had lain down contentedly beside a little heap of 

 cut fodder. In the dead silence of that calm starlight it 

 could be heard gently chewing the cud. 



This was the tiger's first experience of the sportsman's 

 treacherous hospitality. The creature before him was a 

 bait a hela, or young male domestic buffalo an unfortu- 

 nate of a kind generally chosen for this grim work, by 

 reason both of his low price and the fact that the similar 

 use of a cow would, in this land of anomalies, offend the/ 

 religious susceptibilities of the pious Hindu, and indirectly 

 react to the detriment of the sportsman's movements. 

 The little animal seems quite unconscious of impending 

 harm, as, previously watered, and provided with fodder 

 for the night, he stands there at his picket awaiting his 

 fate ; and the sportsman must needs justify this procedure 

 as best he may, calling it the means to an end, and knowing 

 that what befalls the htta is usually mercifully unexpected 

 and sudden. 



Although our tiger knew his dinner when he saw it, he 

 was as yet ill-versed in these matters of Mas ; so when 

 the same old grim tragedy was enacted under the cold 

 I 



