CHAPTER IX. 

 INCIDENTS IN TIGER SHOOTING 



I ^HE first tiger which I ever saw (outside of 

 JL a cage) was in Assam, over twenty years 

 ago. I was then quite a novice, had not bagged 

 even a single head of big game, and upon that 

 occasion I missed a very easy shot. 



The coolie women, on returning from work, 

 had seen a tiger carrying a dead bullock (or cow) 

 through the tea, and had raised a shout, where- 

 upon the robber had dropped his prey, and had 

 bounded through the tea bushes, across the estate 

 road, and into a huge sea of high grass and reeds 

 beyond. 



I went out at once on hearing the news, and 

 had a charpoy (or native bedstead), formed of a 

 coir rope network fixed in a wooden frame, put 

 up in a tree not far from the carcass, and then I 

 got up, lay on it, and watched. 



While it was still quite light, I suddenly became 

 aware that there was something under me, and, 

 looking through the coir network, I saw a little 

 cub sniffing about the place where the men had 

 erected two upright posts to support the front of 

 the charpoy. 



138 



