150 STALKS ABROAD 



during a famine when human beings were starving 

 the practice was not discontinued. Great, stark, 

 fierce - looking brutes they were, too, with stiff 

 bristly backs and splendid tushes. Occasionally 

 some more than usually daring panther would creep 

 in from the jungle and kill a young one, though 

 this was of rare occurrence. In the surrounding 

 trees were numbers of wild peacocks and pigeons 

 waiting to pick up anything that came their way. 



The shooting was all very carefully preserved, 

 but Captain Chenevix Trench, the acting Resident, 

 very kindly said that he would arrange for us to 

 have a try for chinkara, or ravine deer, a little 

 gazelle standing about twenty-four inches at the 

 shoulder. Accordingly we started off one morning 

 at daybreak in a bullock tonga. 



We had been provided with a letter of introduc- 

 tion to Raj Singh, a Rao or noble who lived in an 

 old mediaeval Rajput castle. Thither we went. 

 Bullocks with curved and painted horns, their sleek 

 sides bedaubed with patches of colour, plodded 

 patiently through the dust and gazed with sleepy-eyed 

 envy at the grey donkeys and water-buffaloes who 

 browsed contentedly at the roadside. Picturesque 

 strings of women, nose-ringed, their arms, ankles, 

 and toes loaded with bracelets of quaint design, 

 heavy anklets of brass, and silver ornaments passed 

 to and fro. Their dull red garments floated about 

 their graceful forms, one corner being furtively drawn 

 about their usually ugly features at our approach. 



