SMALL GAME IN INDIA 153 



Back we went, rather despondently it must be 

 confessed, for it seemed we should get no assistance. 

 However, just as we were about to start, an old gentle- 

 man jumped up behind with the single explanation 



" Shikari ! " 



He led us through a little village, and after 

 witnessing the antics of a refractory camel, signed 

 to us to get out at a little wayside mosque. We 

 had a longish walk over very rough ground, past 

 cactus hedges on which were countless doves, strips 

 of cultivated land where peacocks strutted uttering 

 their peculiar call, whilst a troop of grey-faced monkeys 

 with long curving tails played their senseless games. 



There was nothing very distinctive in the day's 

 sport. The chinkara were uncommonly wild and 

 uncommonly difficult to hit. However, we annexed 

 one after a long, tiring stalk, and returned more 

 or less satisfied. 



Our next chance came at Jeypore. Through the 

 kindness of H.H. the Maharajah we were given 

 permission to shoot one blackbuck apiece on his 

 private preserve. 



Jeypore has well been called " a surprising city," 

 for it is like no other place which you will see in 

 India, a town of pink and white dolls' houses inter- 

 sected by wide streets. Its founder, Jey Sing, must 

 have been a surprising man, with a mania for 

 astronomical research. But Jeypore itself and the 

 great white and yellow palace of Amber, staring 

 desolately forth above forgotten ruins, lay behind 



