132 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR 



then a second one came and, while one eat, the other 

 one sat and watched. After they had finished what 

 I should have considered several substantial meals 

 they ran round and round the dead cow, and then had 

 a glorious game in the bright moonlight, rolling 

 about and tumbling over each other ; they screamed 

 and laughed and cantered away, circling round, and 

 then began their games all over again. I dropped 

 off to sleep in the middle of it, but their noises and 

 screaming woke me up every time. Towards dawn 

 they went off and a small animal that looked like 

 a tiny leopard came to feed. It crept inside the 

 carcase of the cow, but kept constantly popping its 

 head out to look round and see if all was safe, and the 

 moon lighted up its eyes, which shone out against 

 the dark background. Lai Singh said, in the 

 morning, it was what they call a chitwa, and not the 

 tendwa of the large kind. I think I had seen its 

 picture on the walls of the fresco house, but it did 

 not make the beautiful noises the village people had 

 done in imitating it. 



I had only a few more days in those jungles and 

 had no more luck with shikar there; the journey 

 back was rather troublesome, Fanny went lame, the 

 buffaloes that were drawing the carts took it in turn 

 to run away or lie down and refuse to go, and on 

 arrival at the last camping ground a violent thunder- 

 storm came on and soaked everything through. 

 And it was here, too, that after amusing myself with 

 playing a game of chess, cut out of the Field, and 

 putting the pieces away, the poor white queen was 

 forgotten and dropped, and she lay out alone on 



