HOW I KILLED THE TIGER. QQ 



seemed to be pouring out their contents in the 

 heavens, and men of science suspected that hail 

 was coming. And, presently, it came ; ushered in 

 by a few bright, lens-shaped stones as large as 

 pigeons' eggs ; then came more larger still ; and, 

 while wondering Englishmen looked and thought, 

 and startled natives invoked " Purmesur, Narain," 

 down fell a shower of more than cricket ball size. 

 Was it a delusion ? To rush out, and seize a stone, 

 to call for scales and tape, was the work of an 

 instant. Many were the weighings and measurings 

 of these monsters over all parts of the station. 

 Some weighed six, others eight, others ten ounces, 

 and one or two more than one-and-a-half pounds 

 avoirdupois : with circumferences ranging from nine 

 to thirteen inches. Men and animals fled for 

 shelter ; vegetable gardens became ploughed fields, 

 with " something green " turning up here and 

 there ; the lake looked as if it were being besieged 

 by endless batteries ; or as if innumerable whales 

 were blowing and sporting in the waters so un- 

 ceasing were the jets d'eau cast up by the falling 

 balls of hail. And you sat in your house, listening 

 to the roar above you, calculating upon the strength 

 of beams and roofing ; you tried to talk, but your 

 neighbour couldn't hear you ; so you sat and 

 thought of Vulcan and the thunder-bolts of 

 Jupiter. 



