THE MAHADEO HILLS. 117 



the tiger's mighty paw went round outside,, and the poor 

 cow had evidently circled round and round between the 

 monster and her little one. I am glad to say that I tracked 

 the tiger off in one direction, and the courageous mother and 

 her calf safe in another. The tiger cannot, I believe, kill even a 

 cow bison, unless taken at a disadvantage ; and with a bull he 

 could have no chance whatever. I seldom went out without 

 meeting the tracks of this tiger ; and often followed him 

 through his whole night's wanderings, which were laid out as 

 on a map in the clean sand of the stream beds ; but I always 

 lost him in the end, though I believe he often let me pass 

 within a few yards of him without saying anything. He 

 came at rare intervals, like the bison, on to the plateau ; but 

 his regular beat was round the bottom of Dhiipgarh, a thou- 

 sand feet lower down. Once, long ago, a tiger took up his 

 post on the plateau, and became a man-eater, almost stopping 

 the pilgrimage to Mahadeo, till he was shot by the uncle of 

 the TMkur. 



I followed the wounded bison bull for about a mile from 

 where he was last seen ; but he was moving fast, and the blood 

 had ceased to drop. He would never stop, the people said, 

 till he got to a stronghold of the bison of these hills, about 

 five miles off, a hill called the Buri-Ma (Old Mother) ; and so 

 I reluctantly gave up the pursuit. When I returned all the 

 beaters were assembled ; and a more wild and uncouth set it 

 never before had been my lot to see. Entirely naked, with 

 the exception of a very dingy and often terribly scanty strip of 

 cloth round the middle, there was no difficulty in detecting the 

 points that mark the aborigine. They were all of low stature, 

 the Korkus perhaps averaging an inch or two higher than the 

 G6nds, who seldom exceed five feet two inches ; the colour 

 generally a very dark brown, almost black in many indivi- 



