128 HUNTING IN THE JUNGLE. 



errand ; four bearers, one for each limb, currying a dead 

 body toward some quiet spot in the forest. 



One night when 1 was in India I saw a crowd of these gen- 

 tle creatures climbing over the ruins of an ancient temple, 

 and a weird sight it was. We were passing the night in 

 one of those old brick towei's built by the rajahs, at regular 

 distances, to shelter travellers. Imagine a kind of turret 

 twenty or twenty-five feet high, divided into three stories, 

 each of one room surrounded l)y a low ledge on which 

 travellers might sleep, and crowned with a platform from 

 which they could safely enjoy the comparative coolness 

 of the nights and listen to the strange concert of sounds 

 that arose from the forest round its base. That night the 

 tigers, attracted by our horses that we had stabled in the 

 lower story, prowled round our shelter uttering their pen- 

 etrating cries, sometimes in a deeper tone that rolled and 

 reverberated like thunder through the tree-tops. To these 

 notes was added the occasional cry of a panther, stealing 

 up to our ill-fastened door to find himself disappointed of 

 his prey. My hunting companion fired his revolver toward 

 several pairs of lurid eyes which, at the report, disappeared 

 into the blackness of the surrounding undergrowth, only 

 to reappear after a few minutes as hungry as ever. A 

 tiger, by the way, is nearly always hungry ; for living as 

 he does on the flesh of deer and other swift-footed game, 

 he is often unable to catch them for days together. 



One of my friend's shots was followed by an unusually 

 sharp and loud cry. 



