124 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTKAL li^DIA. 



calf. Within a space of some twenty yards in diameter 

 the grass had been closely trampled down and paddled 

 into the moist ground by their feet, the footprints of the 

 calf being in the centre, while the tiger's mighty paw 

 went round outside, and the poor cow had evidently 

 circled round and round between the monster and her 

 little one, I am glad to say that I tracked the tiger off 

 in one direction, and the courageous mother and her calf 

 safe in another. The tiger cannot, I believe, kill even a 

 cow bison, unless taken at a disadvantage ; and with 

 a bull he could have no chance whatever. I seldom 

 went out without meeting the tracks of this tiger ; and 

 often followed him throuQ-h his whole nio-ht's wanderings, 

 which were laid out as on a map in the clean sand of the 

 stream beds ; but I always lost him in the end, though 

 I believe he often let me pass within a few yards of him. 

 He came at rare intervals, like the bison, on to the 

 plateau ; but his regular beat was round the bottom of 

 Dhupgarh, a thousand feet lower down. Once, long 

 ago, a tiger took up his post on the plateau, and became 

 a man-eater, almost stopping the pilgrimage to Mahadeo, 

 till he was shot by the uncle of the Thakiir. 



I followed the wounded bison bull for about a mile 

 from where he was last seen ; but he was moving fast, 

 and the blood had ceased to drop. He would never 

 stop, the people said, till he got to a stronghold of the 

 bison of these hills, about five miles off, a hill called the 

 Biiri-Ma (Old Mother) ; and so I reluctantly gave up 

 the pursuit. When I returned all the beaters were 

 assembled ; and a more wild and uncouth set it never 

 before had been my lot to see. Entirely naked, with 

 the exception of a very dingy and often terribly scanty 

 strip of cloth round the middle, there was no difficulty 



