THE TIGER. 275 



hazards, getting repeatedly charged, while others keep 

 at a distance, circling round and offering doors of 

 escape to the tiger, and never get a charge at all. As 

 a rule, when on an elephant in fair ground, the 

 object should be to get the tiger to charge instead of 

 letting him sneak away, as the hunt is then ended in 

 a short and exciting encounter, while if let away it 

 may be hours before he is found again, if he ever is at 

 all. 



The first difficulty is to get reliable information 

 of the presence of tigers in a particular neighbour- 

 hood. A great many reasons, besides the simple one 

 to which it is usually attributed, namely, that "they 

 are cursed niggers," combine to make the natives in 

 most places very unwilling to give information about 

 tio-ers. Firstlv, it is likely to briuo; down a larofe 

 encampment of " Sahibs " on their village, which 

 they, very justly in most cases, dislike. The military 

 officer who scorns to learn the rural language, and 

 his train of overbearing, swindling servants, who fully 

 carry out the principle that from him who hath not 

 what little he hath shall be taken away, and that 

 without a price, too, stink in the nostrils of the poor 

 inhabitants of the tracts where tio;ers are found. The 

 tiger himself is, in fact, far more endurable than those 

 who encamp over against them to make war upon 

 him, and demand from them grain and other supplies 

 which they have not, and carts, ,etc., to carry the 

 camp, which they want to use for other urgent pur- 

 poses. Then they fear that they will be made to 

 beat for the tiger — both those who are willing and 

 those who are not — with a considerable chance of 

 getting killed, and very little of being paid for their 



