400 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA. 



As they drew together the noises ceased for about a 

 quarter of an hour ; and I was dozing off to sleep again, 

 when suddenly arose the most fearful din near to where 

 the tio-ress had first sounded the love-note to her rival 

 lovers, a din like the caterwauling of midnight cats 

 mao-nified a hundredfold. Intervals of silence, broken 

 by outbursts of this infernal shriekiug and moaning, 

 disturbed our rest for the next hour, dying away 

 gradually as the tigers retired along the bed of the 

 river. In the mornino: I found all the incidents of a 

 three-volume novel in feline life imprinted on the sand ; 

 and marks of blood showed how genuine the combat 

 part of the performance had been. For the assurance 

 of the timid, I may as well say that I have never had 

 my camp actually invaded by a tiger, though constantly 

 pitched, with a slender following, and without any sort 

 of precaution, in the middle of their haunts. It strikes 

 a stranger to jungle ways a little oddly, perhaps, to see 

 a man in the warm summer nights calmly take his bed 

 out a hundred yards from the tents, lie down under the 

 canopy of heaven, listen, pipe in mouth, for half an 

 hour to the noises of wild animals, and then placidly 

 fall asleep. He soon learns to do the same himself. 



About the end of the rains, in September and 

 October, the red deer collect in large herds on the tops 

 of the plateaux ; and I have been told of assemblages of 

 several hundred head at that season. They are then 

 beginning to rut, and are very easy to get at, the 

 Gonds and Bygas killing great numbers with their axes, 

 aided by their strong, tall dogs. The best heads are to 

 be got from these people ; and that figured opposite, 

 which is a very typical one, was killed either thus or by 

 a tiger. I myself never got a complete head with more 

 than ten points, though I have secured some heavier 



