A TIGER-DRIVE. 221 



almost hysterical catch to the laugh of more than 

 one man. 



This was the most sporting tiger-drive that I have 

 ever seen. The fact that no tiger was seen, and that 

 possibly no tiger was near us, does not in any way 

 detract from the sport. We all believed that the 

 tiger was there : the guns thought that a tiger which 

 was aware of their presence was being forced to come 

 towards them ; and the beaters felt that they were 

 impelling forward an animal whose desire was to 

 charge back through their ranks. If the drive had 

 ended by a tiger being shot, it would not in the 

 slightest degree have added to the excitement that 

 marked the duration of the drive. I have shot a 

 tiger in a drive that had not a tenth of the interest 

 of this day. Accompanied only by Malays, I have 

 occasionally had to follow wounded tigers on foot 

 through nasty country. As I have said above, I have 

 heard the "selawat" answered in royal style; but 

 nowhere else have I seen such an intensity of feeling 

 and excitement. With this the number of men em- 

 ployed had a great deal to do. ' It is seldom that one 

 requisitions more than thirty or forty beaters, whereas 

 in this case fully two hundred men were engaged. 

 The amount of magnetic feeling, where the excite- 

 ment was communicated from unseen unit to unseen 

 unit throughout the forest, was enormous, and the air 

 vibrated to the unuttered excitement of the men. 



It is in a drive where a line of men armed only 

 with spears advances thus determinedly upon a tiger, 

 that you realise how powerful a brute it is that 

 they are assailing. From the height of a seat in a 



