280 THE HIGHLAJS^DS OF CENTKAL INDIA. 



to learn the business tlioroughly, so as to be able after- 

 wards to devolve the labour on your shikaris. A sports- 

 man who is not thoroughly master of this business will 

 never have a reliable shikari ; and the best men are 

 those who have been trained up in it along with their 

 masters. 



The morning is the best time for this work. It is 

 then cool, and every footprint of the previous night is 

 sharp and clear. All the wild animals, from whose 

 movements much is to be learnt, are then on the move. 

 The movements of the tiger even may often be traced 

 up to eight or nine o'clock by the voices of monkeys and 

 peafowl, the chatter of crows and small birds, and the 

 bark of sambar and spotted deer. The whole nocturnal 

 life of the beasts of the forest is then displayed in the 

 clearest manner to the hunter whose eye has been 

 trained to read the book of nature : and I know nothins: 

 more interesting than a ramble in the cool gray of a 

 summer morning along the stream-beds of a tract in 

 which live a great variety of wild animals. The river 

 beds usually contain large stretches of sand and gravel, 

 with here and there a pool of water, the margin of which 

 will be covered with tracks of deer, wild hogs, bears, 

 etc., and here and there the mighty footprints of the 

 jungle king himself. All niust come here to drink in 

 the cool night succeeding a burning day ; and in the 

 neiojhbourhood of the water occur most of the tragical 

 interviews between the herbivora and their carnivorous 

 foes. Everywhere the cruel tyranny of the tiger has 

 imprinted itself on the faithful page. His track to the 

 water is straight and leisurely, while that of the nilgai 

 or spotted deer is halting and suspicious, and apt to end 

 in a wild scurry to right and left where it crosses the 



