44 THE EASTEEN HUNTERS. 



intend the stretching and pegging down of the 

 skin. 



When the hide is taken off, and the pieces of 

 flesh and fat still adhering carefully scraped away, 

 it is pegged to the ground by means of a number of 

 little wooden pegs, two or three inches long, driven 

 through the skin at intervals, just within its outer 

 edge, all round. This is done with the hairy side 

 of the skin downwards, so that, after being well 

 washed and scraped, the interior may dry from the 

 exposure, and thus the hide retain, without shrink- 

 ing, the dimensions it has been stretched to. It 

 therefore follows that a skin is somewhat longer in 

 measurement than the animal who at one time 

 actually wore it. 



Cheroot in mouth, and lolling in their chairs in 

 the loose undress I have before described, the 

 hunters sat and superintended, smoking and chatting 

 over the incidents of the day, in the pleasant light 

 of a young tropical moon. The hum of many in- 

 sects was around, seeming to pervade the air. Bats 

 fluttered to and fro, and fireflies glittered in the 

 shady nooks about the pool. A hungry impatient 

 family or two of jackals set up their clamorous 

 demands for supper, having already scented death 

 on the still air. And more than once the ghost- 

 like form of one more daring than the rest would 



