A Hyrcan Tiger 243 



the most of the failing light by starting on my 

 long walk to camp, when Ibrahim from near me 

 whispered in great excitement that he had seen 

 a big animal perhaps a panther come out of 

 the forest to our left. I noticed his mouth 

 seemed quite dry. The ground that fell away 

 immediately in front of me was concealed by 

 thorn bushes. I crept through these to get a 

 view. Some sixty yards below me a long dark 

 form was stalking slowly through the yellow 

 grass. The tiger ! 



I took the shot standing, and with a stifled 

 grunt he fell over. I gave him a coup-de-grdce, 

 but he did not want it, and we went up to view 

 the prize. He was a big heavy male in perfect 

 condition. Ibrahim had never seen a tiger before, 

 arid his delight was unbounded mine hardly less. 

 He took the great head in his lap, stroked him 

 all over, examined the huge forearm and pads, 

 all to a muttered accompaniment of " ai babar! 

 ai babar!" (oh tiger! oh tiger!) " Sahib," he 

 said, " our qismat (luck) has been so bad with 

 the deer, my liver has been on fire ; I tell you 

 the truth, I have not been able to swallow my 

 bread. Say, is not this tiger better than a twelve- 

 pointer? better than a fourteen-pointer ? better 

 than all the stags in the world ? Never shall I 

 forget this day. If I could but have a photo of 



