34 



THE VILLAGE SHIKAREE. 



sobriquet had been given him, I was told, by some former 

 employer. Not that he had earned it from the fact of his 

 having performed any daring feats in the destruction of 

 Bruin, but from his having the reputation of making himself 

 scarce at the first symptom of any dangerous intention on 

 the part of the said animal. However, as he was reported 

 to know the country and the haunts and habits of its game 

 pretty well, I employed him, and found that in this respect 

 at any rate he did not belie his calling, besides being a 

 cheery, amusing little man. 



The Himalayan native shikaree is, as a rule, a perfect 



cragsman, an excellent 

 stalker, and an adept in 

 woodcraft generally. His 

 power of vision, too, is 

 marvellously acute ; and 

 his capability for quickly 

 detecting game, either in 

 thick cover or far off in 

 the open, is sometimes as- 

 tonishing. If he errs, it 

 is in his endeavouring to 

 get so close to game that, 

 unless you are capable, as 

 he is himself with his bare 

 legs and feet, of moving 

 as noiselessly as a cat, it 

 usually precludes anything 

 but a snap-shot; and 

 should the ground be pre- 

 cipitous and broken, sometimes not even that before a beast, 

 on being alarmed, can get instantly out of sight, and is often 

 out of range ere it reappears, if it does so at all. For wild 

 animals, when they suddenly detect danger very close to 

 them, are so terrified that they make off like an arrow ; 

 whereas, if it is farther from them, they will often stand 



Village Shikaree, with matchlock and rest. 

 Province of Kumaon. 



