CHAPTER III. 



MULKAPOOR. 



"Here couch'd the panting tiger on the wal^*h; 

 Impatient but unmoved, his fire-ball eyes 

 Made horrid twilight in the sunless jungle 

 Till on the heedless buffalo he sprang, 

 Dragg'd the low bellowing monster to his lair, 

 Crash'd through his ribs into his heart — 

 QuafF'd the hot blood, and gorged the quivering flesh 

 Till drunk he lay, as powerless as the carcass." 



Our camp. — Mulkapoor. — The Patel. — Good news of shekar. — 



W ^"s family, — Scheme for a Nautch. — The Begum. — 



Her love of good liquor. — The prescription. — Chineah and 

 my shekar gang. — The doctor's ruse. — News of a man- 

 eater. — Departure of the gang. 



It was a fine morning, soon after sunrise, in the 

 month of March, 18 — , when I arrived at the little 

 village of Mulkapoor, two days' march from Hydra- 

 bad, in the Deccan, in command of some irregular 

 cavalry which, with two companies of native in- 

 fantry, formed the travelling escort of a begum (a 

 lady of rank) and her daughter, who, with a large 

 suite of followers and attendants of both sexes, was 

 en route for the Presidency. The cavalcade con- 



