212 IN MALAY FORESTS. 



and three Malay rajas, and for each there had been 

 erected in a tree a small platform made of lopped 

 branches bound together with green rattans and 

 screened with leafy boughs. The object of the 

 platform is partly to keep the shooter safe above 

 any danger from the tiger, but partly also to enable 

 him to obtain the best possible view of the ground 

 and to prevent the tiger from scenting him. 



As soon as we had scrambled into our individual 

 platforms, the Malays who had been our guides 

 swarmed up adjacent trees, and, having first made 

 sure that they had not intruded upon a nest of the 

 great vicious red ants, selected comfortable perches 

 from which to await the result of the drive. The 

 beaters formed into line at a place some two or 

 three miles away from the posts taken up by the 

 guns. The forest that they had to beat out was 

 a strip comparatively narrow in proportion to its 

 length, lying between a Government bridle-path on 

 the one side and a deep swamp on the other. It 

 was most unlikely that the tiger would attempt to 

 break out at the sides of the ground, and therefore 

 no stops were posted. 



We had not been long in our places when the pre- 

 concerted signal of a shot announced that the drive 

 had begun. It would, however, be another two hours 

 at least before the men would arrive at the line of 

 guns, for beating in dense forest, if thoroughly 

 carried out, is very slow work. Deep silence reigned 

 throughout the part of the forest in which we were, 

 a silence enhanced by the faint distant sounds of 

 the occasional war-cry of the advancing Malays. A 



