336 THE EASTERN HUNTERS. 



of action, his congratulations were unmistakably 

 sincere. 



" Very good, Sahibs, very good ! " he said, 

 chuckling gleefully. "There will be good meat 

 for the gentlemen's dinner to-day. There is plenty 

 of good flesh on these pig," and he gloated over the 

 animal he was already engaged in disemboweling, 

 and otherwise rendering fit for transit to the tents. 

 Manajee was in the meantime similarly employed 

 on the other. When prepared, they were hung on 

 boughs, and, with the tiger, conveyed to camp. 



To Manuel was assigned the duty of choosing 

 and preparing the most delicate portions for the 

 table ; and one or two jokes passed between that 

 person and his young friend Baloo, at the expense of 

 old Sheik Hussein. 



Imbued with the orthodox Mussulman aversion, 

 he had expressed his disgust by spitting on the 

 ground when the unclean animals were first brought 

 in. Disdaining to appear to take the slightest 

 interest in the cutting up which appeared to afford 

 unlimited gratification to his pork-eating fellows, 

 and the many loquacious on-lookers, he removed 

 himself to a distance, and pondered on the depraved 

 and heterodox tastes of the misguided lovers of the 

 forbidden meat. He was not so far away, however, 

 as to be entirely ignorant of the nature of the jokes 



