278 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTEAL INDIA. 



day, and the day after it would be useless. Further, it would 

 seldom be conveniently situated with respect to some haunt 

 of the tiger favourable for finding him in, and the whole day 

 might be lost in trying to find him in wrong places. In fine, 

 experience shows that no bag can ever be made worth speak- 

 ing of without tying out baits. I usually purchased at the 

 commencement of the season a dozen or fifteen half-grown 

 buffaloes, these being the cheapest as well as the most readily 

 killed by tigers. A thin old brute of an ox, or a tough full- 

 grown buffalo, a well-fed tiger will scorn to touch, and often 

 in the morning his footprints will be found all round such a 

 bait, which he has come and smelt, and (metaphorically) 

 poked in the ribs, and left untouched. But a tender juicy 

 young buff, of about three and a half feet high would 

 tempt the most blase of tigers to a meal. The cowherds, 

 being good Hindus, will not sell cattle avowedly to be 

 tied up for tigers ; nor will your Hindu shikdris tie them 

 up with their own hands, though few will object to super- 

 intend the operation. The flimsiest disguise is, however, 

 sufficient to quiet the consciences of the cattle men, who 

 will sell a herd of young buffaloes in open market to your 

 Mahomedan shik&ri dressed up as a trader in kine, though 

 they may have known him for a bloody-minded baiter for 

 tigers all their lives. I remember being very hard up for a 

 bait once in the Nimar district, having come to a place where 

 tigers were very destructive when I had none of my own. 

 All I could say would not induce the Gaolis (cow-keepers) of 

 the place to sell me a single head during the day-time, the 

 owner of the village being a Baghel Edjpiit, a clan which 

 claims descent from a royal tiger, and protects the species 

 whenever they can. I was standing outside my tent in the 

 evening, when the village cattle were being driven in, having 



