THE TIGER. 299 



bullocks by the tiger, just as they were starting from their 

 night's encampment. The elephant had not been unharnessed ; 

 and, securing some food and a bottle of claret, I was not two 

 minutes in getting under way again. The edge of a low 

 savanna, covered with long grass and intersected by a nala, 

 was the scene of this last assassination ; and a broad trail of 

 crushed-down grass showed where the body had been dragged 

 down towards the nala. No tracking was required. It was 

 horribly plain. The trail did not lead quite into the nala, 

 which had steep sides ; but turned and went alongside of it 

 into some very long grass reaching nearly up to the howdah. 

 Here Sarju Parshad (a large Government mukna I was 

 then riding) kicked violently at the ground and trumpeted, 

 and immediately the long grass began to wave ahead. 

 We pushed on at full speed, stepping as we went over 

 the ghastly half-eaten body of the Banjara. But the cover 

 was dreadfully thick ; and though I caught a glimpse of 

 a yellow object as it jumped down into the nala it was not 

 in time to fire. It was some little time before we could get 

 the elephant down the bank and follow the broad plain foot- 

 prints of the monster, now evidently going at a swinging 

 trot. He kept on in the nala for about a mile, and then took 

 to the grass again ; but it was not so long here, and we could 

 still make out the trail from the howdah. Presently, how- 

 ever, it led into rough stony ground, and the tracking became 

 more difficult. He was evidently full of go, and would carry 

 us far ; so I sent back for some more trackers, and with orders 

 to send a small tent across to a hamlet on the banks of the 

 Ganjal, towards which he seemed to be making. All that day 

 we followed the trail through an exceedingly difficult- country, 

 patiently working out print by print, but without being 

 gratified by a sight of his brindled hide. Several of the 



