Tiger Shooting. 39 



House, and while they went to get their laities we 

 trudged home. We had forgotten all about the cub ; 

 not so the men. Directly our backs were turned, they 

 searched for him, found him, and literally hacked him 

 to pieces, receiving sundry wounds in the encounter 

 for he was fully as large as a big St. Bernard dog 

 but these men made nothing of the mauling they got, 

 only treating their wounds with laughter and joke. 

 Such are these plucky good-natured Ghoorkhas, with 

 whom I have had many a hunt. On service they are 

 inferior to no troops in the world. They do not fear 

 death in the least, and would, if ordered, as soon 

 march up to a loaded battery of guns as enter into a 

 game of football. The only drawback, if it can be 

 called one, is, that if they meet with a stubborn 

 resistance they get wild with excitement ; then there 

 is no holding them in hand. In such emergencies 

 they drop their rifles, and rush in with their kookries, 

 when the strife becomes a case of slaughter: for 

 either they are killed or slay all opposed to them. I 

 wish we had a couple of hundred thousand of them in 

 a European war. I think they would astonish the 

 flower of Continental troops. 



I have been at other hunts after tigers on foot, 

 alone and in company, but space is limited for I have 

 to give instances of other modes of killing the right 

 royal beasts. 



Shooting off Elephants out of Hoivdcihs is very 

 exciting. There is just enough danger in it to stir 

 up one's blood. If every elephant used could be 

 thoroughly depended upon at all times, there would 

 be little risk, but an elephant that is perfectly staunch 



