212 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR 



sheltered path a tiger might choose, should he chance 

 to come from that side, and we should then meet 

 at extremely close quarters, too near to be pleasant. 

 I sat with my back to the path so that I might 

 watch the kill in the nullah, and glanced rather 

 furtively over my shoulder now and then. After 

 all the nullah was his likeliest road, but one never 

 knows. 



After a time there was a rustling in the grass and 

 leaves below, and I saw, on the ground among 

 brushwood, a long black and yellow striped thing 

 that, for the first moment, I felt sure was a tiger's 

 tail. It moved, and I saw it was a large fat snake, 

 about nine feet long, with a small head and biggish 

 body, and it crawled along half into a hole, then out 

 again : it was just a tiger's colour, black and yellow. 

 I hoped it would not want to come and climb my 

 tree ! However, neither snake nor tiger came my 

 way; nothing but a grey jackal, and I was rather 

 relieved when darkness came on that it was time to 

 whistle for the men and get away. 



The tiger came after I had left and had a feed, so 

 we beat next day. As I was rather lame I could not 

 get about well enough to settle beforehand where I 

 should sit, and when I had climbed into the tree that 

 Abdulla had chosen, I noticed red ants running up 

 it, and pointed them out to him. He said it was all 

 right, there were only a very few, and they were 

 going up side branches that did not matter. I took 

 precautions, however, to have a coolie with me a 

 thing I never do to beat them off if they were 

 troublesome. They were ! They soon began to 



