208 Wild Beasts 



temper, great strength, and terrible means of offence, is 

 as cunning as a fox, and wary to a degree that closely 

 simulates cowardice. But one might as well call North 

 American Indians cowards, which by the way is often 

 done by those whose opinions are unbiassed by any per- 

 sonal acquaintance with them, because they always fight 

 on the principle of taking the greatest advantage and 

 least risk. 



To start a party such as ours takes time, and of the 

 value of time no Hindu has the slightest idea. The mob 

 of beaters are packed off with strenuous injunctions to 

 keep together, but they will not do so. An ineradicable 

 heedlessness besets them, and they are certain to straggle, 

 though the risk that doing so entails is perfectly well un- 

 derstood. The Oriental says, " If it is my fate to perish 

 thus, how can I avoid the decree of heaven ? My destiny is 

 fixed ; it is in the hands of God, and may the devil take 

 these infidels who talk as if matters could be otherwise 

 than as they are." 



Every crupper, breast-band, girth, and howdah cloth 

 must be looked to by the hunters themselves ; mahouts 

 and attendants cannot be trusted to equip their charges, 

 and if things were left to them, an elephant would be dis- 

 abled every day. 



All our -proc'eedings as we draw near to the tiger require 

 to be conducted with reference to the lie of the land. 

 Whether he be beaten for with elephants, or roused by 

 the unearthly clamor of the crowd that has come to drive 

 him, it is probable that his first act will be an attempt to 

 escape. He carries a perfect topographical chart of the 



