78 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR 



went back to get the men to bring the second rifle, 

 and they said, by the noise he made, they were sure 

 it was a tiger. We waited and heard snorting 

 and hard breathing. Laximan went on and said 

 he could see the kulga waving his head slowly from 

 side to side and looking very sick. Then he said the 

 jungli kulga was coming, and as we heard a stamping 

 we all ran for trees, the men very nobly giving me 

 a leg up to a branch before they climbed their own 

 trees. 



Nothing happened, so I got down, fired another 

 shot, and then bolted for my tree. The bison 

 did not come on and I began to climb down again. 

 There was a very sharp thorny briar growing up 

 the trunk of my tree. My foot slipped. I tried to 

 cling on to the trunk, but clutched the thorns and 

 tore the palm of my hand as I slithered down and 

 tumbled out of the tree. It was difficult to shoot 

 after this, as I could scarcely grip the rifle ; however, 

 I managed to fire another shot or two where I imagined 

 the body belonging to a white leg that I saw kicking 

 to be lying. Laximan went rather nearer and said 

 he could see the bison lying dead. And all this fuss 

 about a smallish bull whose horns were not big at 

 all! 



In the mornings, in this jungle one saw a great 

 many very handsome, striped, black and yellow 

 spiders that spin enormous webs from bush to bush, 

 six or seven feet wide and equally high. The webs 

 are very sticky and very strong and one felt quite 

 a perceptible but passive resistance from them when 

 walking into them unawares. 



