MY FIRST TIGER. 15 



61 Well," I said, " what khubber from Sendra ?" 



" Sahib, burr a bagh hi, bot sambur hi, bot sing 

 wallah" (sir, there is a large tiger there, and plenty 

 of sambur there, many stags), was the answer, in 

 villainous Rajput patois. 



" Burr a bagh nae " (not a real tiger ?), I replied. 



" Atcha. sahib, burrawallah" (yes, sir, a big 

 fellow), excitedly. 



"Turn dekka" (you saw it?). My Hindustani 

 was only what I had picked up from my shikaris, 

 but they understood it. 



To make a long story short, he stuck to his state- 

 ment. He had not seen the tiger, but the villagers 

 of Sendra had, though they had lost no cattle. This 

 proved that the animal in question was a young and 

 active tiger, for it is only such specimens that live on 

 the deer. When he gets old and heavy, "stripes" 

 finds the villagers' lean kine easier to secure, or, more 

 rarely, takes to preying on man. The shikari had 

 seen the fresh pugs, and also declared there were 

 plenty of sambur. This was obvious if there was a 

 tiger, or the cattle would have paid toll. I had, how- 

 ever, some misgivings with regard to getting a shot ; 

 because I knew there was much jungle at Sendra, and 

 as the waterholes were now fairly full the tiger might 

 be lying anywhere. Nevertheless I decided to have 

 a try, and sent the shikari off to ascertain if he could 

 exactly whereabouts the tiger was lying, promising to 

 join him at the end of the week. 



Saturday morning saw my work over, and before 

 noon I was breakfasting at Ajmere Junction. From 



