126 THE HUNTING GKOUNDS 



once settled, I returned to the village and obtained 

 from the patel the bamboo on which the tappal- 

 runners sling the mail-bags over their shoulders. 

 To the end of this is an iron ring with a number of 

 small pieces of metal attached, making a jingling 

 noise as the man runs, which gives warning of the 

 coming of the post to any crowd that might be ob- 

 structing the path, allowing them time to get out of 

 his way. Having broken off the ring, I fastened it 

 to my belt, so as to allow it to jingle as I walked ; 

 and, arming myself with a short double rifle by 

 Westley Richards, a brace of pistols and a huge 

 shekar knife, I made Kistimah lead the way down 

 the road towards the place where the man-eater was 

 said to lurk. 



About a mile from the village I made the gang 

 and the villagers who accompanied me halt, and 

 went on with Kistimah, Chineah, and Googooloo to 

 reconnoitre the ground. 



The road was intersected by a narrow valley or 

 ravine, along the bottom of which was a dry, sandy 

 watercourse, the banks of which were overgrown 

 with high rank grass and reeds, intermixed with 

 low scrubby thorn-bushes. To the left was a low, 

 rocky hill, in some places bare and in others covered 

 with thick jungle, with wild date or custard-apple 

 clumps here and there. 



Kistimah pointed me out a clump of rather thick 

 jungle to the right of the road, where, he said, the 

 tiger often lurked whilst on the look-out for his prey, 



