268 



HAUNTS AND HOBBIES 



his wanderings, arrived at the station, or rather at the 

 city near which the station was situated. He was 

 practising an austerity, and was pledged to maintain 

 absolute silence for a certain number of years. He 

 heard of the tiger, and made it understood that he 

 would proceed to its cage, put in his arm, and stroke 

 it with impunity. 



A great crowd accompanied him. The devotee, very 

 confident, advanced to the cage and thrust in his arm 

 between the bars, and then uttered a piercing yell ; for, 

 as might have been expected, the tiger, when he saw 

 the arm, immediately seized it. Somehow or other the 

 devotee was rescued, but with his arm terribly lacerated, 

 and also with his reputation for sanctity entirely ruined. 

 Moreover, he had lost all the benefit of his long austerity, 

 for by his screams and other exclamations his vow of 

 silence had been violated. 



Tigers, chained or in cages, used formerly to be often 

 kept by wealthy natives and at the native courts, and 

 in a manner that we should consider very insecure. I 

 remember even now my astonishment on coming on 

 a tiger thus kept in one of the streets of Lucknow ; it 

 was on the occasion of my first visit, some years before 

 the annexation. The gentleman with whom I was 

 staying drove me through the city one afternoon. In 

 the course of the drive we turned suddenly from a 

 rather narrow lane into the principal thoroughfare ; 

 there was a crowd, and we had to wait till it had 

 passed. While thus waiting I happened to look round, 

 and there close beside me, lying on a low wooden 

 platform, I saw an enormous tiger ; he lay half asleep. 



