THE HIGHER XAKl'.ADA. .T17 



painful to the eyes. Never mind I all the more chance 

 of finding the tigers at liome, and we were soon 

 under way for the dewur. About a hundred and 

 fifty beaters had collected, for, the whole wealth of 

 these people lying in their herds, they were natu- 

 rally anxious for the destruction of the family of 

 pests. 



On arriving at the scene of operations, they were 

 told off into four parties, each placed under charge of 

 one of the more respectable inhabitants ; and, after 

 strict injunctions about taking to trees, etc., were des- 

 patched to their several posts. There were only two 

 places where the tigers were likely to break, of which 

 one led to the river, and the other, a dry watercourse, 

 towards the neighbouring hills. Some peculiarities in 

 the ground induced me to select the latter for my own 

 post, while I entrusted the former to the old shikdri 

 with his matchlock. I got an excellent position in a 

 thick covert of jaman bushes, while at the same time 

 effectually commanding the pass. 



Half an hour elapsed, as agreed on, and then burst 

 forth from the beaters the most terrific Babel of 

 barbarous noises ever heard out of Pcindemonium. I 

 had engaged a " band," that had come from some dis- 

 tance to assist at the marriage of a wealthy merchant in 

 the village, and we were, consequently, powerful in 

 instrumental music. Fancy drums, great and small, 

 *' ear-piercing fifes," "rumtoolabs" of formidable dimen- 

 sions (a hideous copper wind instrument, indescribable 

 in simple English, but which I fancy must be identical 

 with the "cholera horn " of Southern India), mingled 

 with a tempest of w^atchmen's rattles (each of iilty 

 landrail power), and abundantly supplemented by vocal 

 abuse of the tigers' ancestors to the tenth generation. 



