BEARS. 31 



Scotland. I had been here once before, during a shooting 

 trip in the monsoon, when the heavy rains being too much 

 for a bechoba (without pole) tent, recourse was had with 

 the approval of the head man of the village to a Mahom- 

 medan mosque for shelter. Here, however, a swarm of 

 bees, which was located in certain " properties " in a loft, 

 being roused by the smoke, drove both me and my 

 followers back to the jungle. Our present camping 

 ground was near a pretty tank, a grassy sward intervening, 

 and tree jungle stretching away on every side. 



Some years previously, this had been the haunt of a 

 notorious man-eating tiger, in pursuit of which a party of 

 sahibs arrived one morning, and pitched their camp under 

 the very trees we had selected for ours. While they were 

 tit breakfast some brinjarries came running in to report, that 

 one of their number had just been carried off by a tiger. 

 One of them, a doctor sahib, took his rifle, ran across to the 

 spot indicated by the natives, and, attired in pyjamas and 

 slippers, entered the jungle, where he found the brute on 

 the body of its victim, and brained it first shot. In the 

 hot weather of 1881 my colonel and I had a good 

 morning's sport with bears near Eajavole, in the Singareny 

 district. The weather had been intensely hot, and when 

 Kistiah* reported no giira, the days passed very slowly 

 indeed. Accordingly, inquiries were made if any part of 

 the jungle infested by bears could be beaten without 

 disturbing the tiger ground, and the head shikari reported 

 that such ground did exist near a certain hill some four 

 miles east of the camp. The following morning, reports of 

 no gara having again arrived, we sent on forty coolies and 

 rode out after breakfast to try for the bears. The ground 

 consisted of a rocky ridge I .">0 vanls long, terminating in a 



* Our head shikari. 



