218 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR 



which was mostly dry, but there were nice pools 

 of water in it. It was refreshing and pleasant to 

 sit and look at the cool water and the beautiful 

 reflections of green trees in it the few that had any 

 leaves left on them. Joggins seemed to take more 

 interest in any blade of grass he might find than in 

 the scenery. 



A goat was killed one night in the jungle by a 

 small panther, and the shikari chose the funniest 

 place for me to sit in. I do not know how high up 

 he had fixed the machan, but I thought I should 

 never arrive at it. There was one fork of the tree 

 about ten feet up and no other branches for ten feet 

 more. They had brought a ladder and I reached the 

 first landing-stage easily, and then asked what was 

 to be done next. They pulled the ladder up and set 

 it in the fork, nearly perpendicular, and I climbed 

 the second storey, holding on very carefully to the 

 tree as well as the ladder. There was a higher 

 climb then among the branches, and this was not so 

 difficult altogether, but when it came to descending, 

 after dark, by the same route, it was rather precarious. 

 And all this trouble for a small panther who never 

 came back. 



On a beautiful starlight night I lay outside the 

 bungalow watching brilliant flashes of lightning 

 playing continuously in the far-distant horizon; 

 and the lightning was going on when I went to 

 sleep. After a few hours came a fierce gust of wind 

 which tore out the mosquito curtains, and they 

 streamed away like a flag. Away went the top 

 sheet, and I was nearly blown away with the under 



