WHAT IS A PHEAL 1 57 



and hair of the victim was an easy one. The body was very 

 little mangled, so it was determined to wait for the return of 

 the tiger, and in the meanwhile to put up a small platform in 

 the only tree near. 



I had office work to attend to in camp, so left my two 

 comrades, who took breakfast and shelter from the sun (it was 

 then near mid-day) under a bush close to, but not within sight 

 of the body, which was not a pleasant spectacle during their 

 meal ; their gun-carriers were about the spot, collecting the 

 rough materials at hand for the Machan. While all were thus 

 employed, the tiger carried off the body from their midst in 

 open day and through not very thick brushwood, without 

 being observed by any one. I returned to them soon after, as 

 they were trying to follow the trail, this time without success, 

 for the body had now neither blood nor rags to mark the path, 

 and the ground was hard. It is difficult to conceive how the 

 beast could have outwitted them, but so it was. I still think, 

 from the trail as we had it first, that this was a small tiger 

 probably a tigress." 



The peculiar cry of the jackal (which is generally called 

 the " pheal "), so unlike its usual unearthly howl, has caused 

 much discussion. It is only the frightened cry of a jackal. 

 As the yelp of a dog undergoing chastisement, or under sudden 

 fright is totally different from its bark, so when the jackal is 

 attempting to poach on the preserve of his master, the tiger, 

 and the latter puts in a sudden appearance, the " provider," 

 as he is called the purloiner would be a truer title goes off 

 with his tail between his legs, uttering the cry of a " pheal." 

 Of this I am sure, as it once occurred before me, when a 

 leopard made a spring at a jackal ; and once when General 

 Blake and Mr. Barry were watching over a dead bullock, near 

 Rungeah. 



Tigers are chary of attacking wild buffaloes, but they often 

 kill isolated tame ones ; but if the herd be near, they will 

 charge en masse, and I once saw a tiger so killed. 



Nor does a tiger care to tackle a wild boar in the open 

 the bodies of the two have been found near each other dead. 

 Scott of my regiment, when with Peyton, 9th Regiment, the 

 crack shot, on the Bison Hill up the Godavery, saw a boar 

 trotting up the hill-side champing his tushes and looking 



