Spearing Game out of Boats. 297 



the point of firing, but the old fellow begged me not to. 

 By this time the tiger had seized the prow of the boat 

 and was attempting to scramble into it, but just as 

 luck would have it he got out of his depth. The 

 old Cacharie, raising himself to his full height, brought 

 down the powerful weapon with all his might, and 

 fairly brained the beast, the dhaw sticking in the 

 gaping wound. The victim gave a few gasps and sank, 

 but was quickly recovered, was dragged to a sand- 

 bank, and as the " tender " had by this time arrived, 

 the carcase was deposited in it by the joint exertions 

 of some dozen men. It was a magnificent specimen, 

 and I had the skull with the dhaw imbedded in it for 

 some years. After this, we got a hog-deer or two, 

 when we were within a couple of miles of Bur- 

 pettah, a herd of buffaloes were started. For some 

 way the water was shallow, so the quarry soon got 

 far ahead, but the people knew the nature of the 

 country and what they were about, so using their 

 utmost strength and keeping well away from the 

 shallows, they were alongside the game almost as soon 

 as the animals had commenced to swim. The spears 

 were not as sharp as they ought to have been in 

 truth we had met with more game than had been 

 anticipated so the most valuable weapons had become 

 blunted and the others were of inferior quality. Thus 

 the o]d man was not as successful as usual and rather 

 bungled his work ; so it took considerable time to 

 kill three cows. These matrons dispatched, we made 

 for the bull ; with him were about a dozen more. 

 Having called for the assistance of other boats, the 

 chase was renewed ; the bull had been prodded twice 

 when we ran on to a very bad mudbank and stuck 



