io Incidents of Foreign Field Sport. 



cutchery at Ebrampatam, eight miles off, perhaps he 

 had gone there by bye paths, and taken the dead tiger 

 to claim the reward. I was in a rage. " Why had the 

 fool not told us cutchery was being held so near ? " So 

 bidding Mogul Beg get on a tat and gallop over as 

 fast as he could, I hurried back to my bungalow, 

 mounted my horse, and made the best of my way to 

 Ebrampatam, and the first thing I saw when I got 

 there was a fine tiger lying in front of the cutchery. 

 I dismounted and had an interview with the Tahsildar 

 (an Eurasian) and he informed me that Peecheemootoo 

 had brought in the beast and claimed the reward, 

 which had been paid him. He asked what proof I had 

 that the tiger was the one Mogul Beg and I had killed, 

 "for," said he, "tigers are plentiful, and I only yesterday, 

 paid another man a similar reward." Proof I had none, 

 for w r e had fired at such close quarters that our 

 bullets had gone clean through the carcass. I pointed 

 to the three holes and asked the official if he believed 

 they were produced by a rusty old matchlock, such 

 as native shikaries use, but he responded that he had 

 no other course than to give the reward to the person 

 who brought in the dead body. I then asked for the 

 skin, but the Tahsildar had taken a fancy to it for 

 himself, and declined to part with it. So Mogul Beg 

 and I went back lamenting, but determined to thrash 

 Peecheemootoo within an inch of his life ; but the 

 wily native was not at home for many a long day, 

 and when he did appear I had left Condapilly on sick 

 certificate, having miraculously escaped from death 

 after a six weeks' bout of jungle fever. Thus I 

 assisted to kill, yet lost my first tiger. 



Somewhere about a month afterwards a large cow 



