4 Incidents of Foreign Field Sport. 



annas, or eighteenpence. Of course I was a constant 

 purchaser and knew and was known well by every 

 herdsman, and as I rewarded them liberally for 

 " Jcubber" if an animal was killed, as happened almost 

 daily, I was sure to hear of it. Thus whenever I 

 was at Condapilly, during the moonlight nights I had 

 full occupation. 



Mogul Beg, the shikarie, and I had sat up no less 

 than sixteen nights without getting a shot. It is 

 one thing to sit up, and quite another to be successful 

 in slaying the object of your quest. Tigers and 

 leopards are wary creatures, and as they lie up not 

 far from the animal they have slain so are often scared 

 away from their prey by the shikarie's talking or 

 cutting down branches in the vicinity of the " kill," 

 when they are erecting a machan. Not only do the 

 beasts of prey disappoint by not returning to their 

 victim, but when one comes, shooting by moonlight 

 is so uncertain, that oftener than not, an animal fired 

 at, is missed, or gets away more or less severely 

 wounded. 



I had returned from hog-hunting with the Nugied 

 Rajah, and was reclining en deshabille, in my long 

 armed chair, when Mogul Beg appeared, and informed 

 me, that a gwala reported that a leopard had killed a 

 three-parts-grown heifer, and that if I would start at 

 once, he thought we might get a shot, for, said he, 

 ' The moon is nearly at the full, and no portion of the 

 animal has been eaten." 



" Well, Mogul Beg," said I, " how often have we sat 

 up and never got a shot ? It is a long trudge to the top 

 of the range. I am very tired, for I have been riding since 

 daybreak, and don't care to go so far for nothing." 



