THE TERM : SPORT OF PRINCES 223 



between the sound of a man walking and a four-footed 

 beast is as easy for a jungle beast to detect as if he saw 

 them. But the gliding, silent step of an elephant, when 

 heard by game, seems to cause them no alarm. They 

 know that elephants are harmless, quiet beasts, minding 

 their own business and hurting no other animal ; and, in 

 fact, the wiliest beast, spotted deer, sambur, or buffalo, 

 will simply stand and stare at a passing elephant, or go 

 on quietly grazing. Hence the advantage of shooting 

 off an elephant. Until the shot is fired, and the poor, 

 unsuspicious beast's attention is attracted to the men on 

 the elephant's back, which at first, apparently, they do not 

 notice, they do not even run away. This is the case 

 certainly in the Terai and Bhabar forests, where wild 

 elephants exist, and are known by all other animals to 

 belong to the jungle fraternity. How often a poor beast 

 can be thus shamefully deceived I do not know ; but I 

 imagine only once, if he does escape the eight barrels 

 which the howdah contains. Yet it requires much 

 practice to hit even a standing deer from the moving 

 howdah, and it is wonderful how many are clean missed. 

 One morning after breakfast, on an off day, the smokers 

 of after-breakfast cheroots strolled from the tents to 

 where a chamar was engaged skinning a very huge male 

 tiger. He was duly measured before skinning, and taped 

 10 feet 6 inches, being a very heavy tiger, with immense 

 head, well fringed on the cheeks hke a Persian cat. His 

 tail was short for the length and size of his bod}-, and the 

 weight and size of his great muscular paws and forearms 

 gave one a fearful impression of what short work such a 

 monster could make of a man, if one were so foolish as to 

 put himself on a par with so powerful a beast in mortal 

 combat. Having seen the fine skin taken off and properly 

 stretched on the ground with sharp bamboo pegs, the 



