TIGERLAND 



While so employed we had leisure in the intervals 

 between our different mounts to watch those now under- 

 going instruction and a more comical sight I have seldom 

 witnessed. 



The plain in front of the tents was alive with men and 

 horses, each striving to gain the mastery over the other, 

 but never did men, so seriously engaged, present a more 

 grotesque and ridiculous appearance. 



Here, a burly form in trooper's guise, but with " A.B." 

 stamped on every curve and line of it, might be seen 

 clinging to his stirrup iron with one foot poised, yet half 

 afraid to trust himself entirely off the ground as he hopped 

 solemnly after the horse which circled round him. 



There, another equally obvious son of Neptune despite 

 his military attire, who having with much difficulty gained 

 the saddle from the off side, sat lost in solemn wonder at 

 finding himself facing the wrong end of his steed ! 



While away in the distance were horses careering 

 madly across the plain, some riderless, others with their 

 riders' arms twined lovingly round their necks. 



But, quainter still were some of the expressions we 

 overheard uttered by those who, somewhat more advanced 

 than their companions and proud of their superior skill, 

 were galloping around the camp at a pace extremely dan- 

 gerous not only to themselves but also to those going in 

 an opposite direction. 



" Starboard there, Bill, hard a starboard or you will 

 run me down," cries one of the latter, as " Bill," pulling 

 the wrong rein, runs into him. 



" Put your helm down," retorts Bill, " and I'll go past 

 your quarter," with the result that " Bill " and his friend, 

 in their mutual efforts to execute this nautical manoeuvre, 

 became mixed up with the tent ropes and horses and 

 riders were soon sprawling on the ground. 



In the meanwhile, another unmistakable mariner who, 

 owing to his self-asserted powers as a horseman, had been 

 assigned a horse less tractable than the others, was dis- 

 playing his skill before an admiring crowd. Perched on 

 a huge, raw-boned, wicked-looking bay, he strove in 

 vain, by gentle means, to make the jibbing brute 

 advance. 

 14 



