66 DIARY OF A SPORTSMAN NATURALIST 



alike, and so the fight against drowsiness was not so awful 

 as it must otherwise have been. But I must have dozed. 



Once I thought, or dreamt, that the bull came close up 

 to the tree and I grew cold with fright. But this incident 

 may have been a chimera of the brain. Another time I 

 felt myself falling off the tree. That effectually roused 

 me and I was broad awake. I looked round. The shadows 

 were lengthening. I noted that, and as I did so I heard a 

 faint halloo. I listened, my faculties keenly on the alert. 

 Silence, a dead silence, save for the tiny twittering of a 

 small tree-creeper on a neighbouring tree. Again surely 

 that was a human voice. With strained faculties I listened 

 intently. There ! unmistakable that time, and on the 

 instant I opened my mouth to shout back. But no sound 

 came save a harsh cackle. My tongue was baked dry and 

 hard as a parrot's. Again I tried, with no better result. 

 Despair seized me. Suppose they went away and left me 

 to my fate. I grew frantic and gazed wildly round. My 

 eye fell on the sal leaves. I plucked a couple and crammed 

 parts of them into my mouth and chewed feverishly. 

 Again the hail nearer this time. I attempted an answer 

 and got out a sound and continued my chewing. I tasted 

 nothing, but I felt a little saliva beginning to form and the 

 blessed hails came nearer. At last I gathered up my whole 

 powers and yelled. A certain amount of voice had come 

 back and my third shout was heard, for a volume of shrieks 

 answered me. I plucked some more leaves and chewed 

 hard, for it was imperative that the men should be warned 

 about the bison. To my wandering senses, after the pro- 

 tracted vigil in the intense heat, he had assumed the form 

 of a devil, armed with the cunning of a serpent, and I did 

 not want my deliverers to suffer at his hands. The voices 

 approached, and I did what I could to warn them. But I 

 doubt whether they understood me at the time. And it was 

 immaterial. They thoroughly understood the wily nature 

 and cunning of the animal they had to deal with. Bishu 

 told me afterwards that the men guessed, from the moment 

 they heard my voice, how it was with me ; for my companion 

 of the morning had been apparently convinced that I was 

 " treed " before he left. I did not clearly follow the men's 

 subsequent movements, as in the reaction my senses must 

 have wandered. I was brought back to reality by a great 

 shout and I heard indistinctly voices saying, " He's dead, 



