A TIGER HUNT IN INDIA 15 



to decide whether the morning or the evening 

 hours are the most lovely; on looking back, 

 however, I think I would give the palm to the 

 evening. And yet, when you crawl out of 

 the tent in the early morning — somewhere 

 about seven o'clock — and breathe the wonderful 

 morning air; when you listen enraptured to 

 the song of the birds and the happy cooing of 

 a hundred doves among the branches overhead ; 

 when your dazzled eyes behold the river, a 

 silver streak, shimmering by, then indeed, as 

 we say — " who would not be a soldier ! " 



The first breakfast at nine left nothing to be 

 desired; except perhaps on the score of rich- 

 ness. After breakfast we either read or wrote. 



About ten o'clock I generally made my way 

 to the tent of the blaster of the Revels, Wynd- 

 ham. Here it was as lively and animated 

 as at headquarters before a battle. Mounted 

 patrols on horseback or on camels arrived with 

 tidings from the various places in which the 

 decoy — generally a bull or a calf — had been 

 tied. The tiger usually roams about at night 

 and drags his prey into the thick jungle, where, 



