TIGER-SHOOTING. 223 



To atone, what more can I do than even now, 

 after the lapse of many years, relate the fact of 

 my folly and exclaim, c Mea culpa, mea culpa ' ? 



This, I think, was an instance of a day when 

 all went wrong. First we got up in the dark, 

 and had a longish ride in search of bears which 

 we never saw. Secondly, after a good gallop 

 after a boar, we failed at the last moment to bag 

 him. Thirdly, a hot and weary ride to a place 

 after a mythical tiger, and finally, when we did 

 find a real one, a successful termination to our 

 4 chasse ' was spoiled through stupidity ! 



At the risk of wearying my readers I cannot 

 refrain from quoting another day, which for a 

 real chapter of accidents I never knew beaten, 

 and, though it was not connected with tiger- 

 shooting, it may perhaps not be out of place to 

 relate it here. 



A large party of us were out on a pig-sticking 

 expedition, and we had heard of an enormous 

 boar, which by native report was said to be the 

 size of a bullock ! His stronghold was a sind- 

 bund, not very big, but very thick and dense. 

 Well, we beat for this boar from eleven a.m. till 

 four p.m., and tried every stratagem that ingenuity 

 could devise to induce him to break, but in vain, 

 and we had to give him up. On our way home, 

 I was behind the rest of the party leading iny 



