316 RIFLE AND ROMANCE 



almost monotonous certainty, especially by those jungle- 

 men or local native shikaris whose acquaintance with a 

 particular beast may almost partake of the nature of 

 personal acquaintance ; while on most occasions, although 

 one may be unable to encompass his undoing, a practical 

 certainty can be made of ensuring his flight to other 

 haunts in other words, of frightening him away. 



It is this power of a clever shikari to take the tiger, 

 with a little arrangement, in the hollow of his hand, that 

 unfortunately makes it possible for the pampered guest or 

 courted globe-trotter to recline at his ease in a comfortable 

 machdn (plush-lined and otherwise sumptuously fitted in 

 some instances !), set down his half -finished champagne 

 cup at a touch from his attendant, and murder the splendid 

 brute that has been guided within easy range of his post 

 by an army of fawning parasites, aided, in their turn, by 

 the plucky unarmed beaters assembled to cater for the 

 "sport" of the Burra Sahib! 



Meanwhile the hard-working resident shikari of small 

 means probably who, right or wrong, regards the deni- 

 zens of the jungles as rather his, by virtue of the life he has 

 given to the service of the country, can, on meeting with a 

 crafty underhand opposition, only chew his bitter mortifi- 

 cation and vow to desert the pursuit of the " royal beast " 

 for that of game, which is only the prize of him who 

 works hard for it a vow which is quickly forgotten as 

 the fascination of tiger shikar returns in all its inevitable 

 force. 



And so the tale proceeds ; from the by no means over- 

 drawn picture of the favoured guest downwards. The tiger 

 bears his price on his head ; and on the payment of that 

 price, be it in coin, or in kind, he usually goes to the 

 highest bidder all of which detracts from the value of his 

 pursuit as compared with those forms of hunting into 

 which pecuniary considerations do not enter to such a 

 degrading extent, and throws a considerable amount of 



