A TIGER HUNT IN INDIA 17 



Each of these brown fellows had a short 

 hatchet in his hand. They all impressed me 

 as being smart, quiet and intelligent. They 

 were almost without exception Hindus. 



We now went on foot towards the mountains. 

 First through a bright streamlet, then up a 

 fairly steep slope through dry underbrush and 

 painful thorns. Soon we were bathed in 

 perspiration, but the dry air prevented the 

 ascent from being too unpleasant. Indeed, 

 the climb was almost a pleasure, when one 

 remembered Ceylon, where one seems to move 

 about in a perpetual Turkish bath. 



Our native huntsman, who crept up as noise- 

 lessly as a wily old fox, pointed suddenly to the 

 ground with a brown finger and said : " Bagh," 

 which means " Tiger." 



Then matters became serious. 



After walking for about half an hour we 

 reached the machan which had been provided 

 for me. This was a kind of little platform 

 erected in a small tree, carefully hidden in 

 boughs and foliage. 



I climbed up with my Hindu and settled 



