80 TIGERS. 



quickly back into the nullah ; this performance was repeated 

 several times, and no doubt he was the tiger's companion, 

 and told him that things were not quite right ; at 

 all events, after waiting until it was too dark to see 

 the buffalo's carcase, I whistled to my companions, this 

 being the signal to descend. They were within forty and 

 sixty yards respectively of my post, and, of course, in 

 separate trees. Giving my rifle to Baliyah, I slid down 

 the stem to the ground, and there, within five yards, was 

 the tiger on the edge of the nullah, looking gigantic in the 

 gloom ! I kept my eyes on him, not daring to move, 

 and said in a firm voice to Baliyah, " Bandook jaldi do " 

 (Give the gun quickly), but he could not reach my hand 

 with the butt. I then said, " Pukaro " (shout) ; he guessed 

 what was the matter, and together we yelled in such a 

 fashion that the brute, being scandalised, retired into the 

 nullah. The tiger kept sniffing me at first, being, 

 probably, equally surprised at my sudden appearance ; and 

 quite twenty seconds must have elapsed from the time 

 of my descent until he retired. It is well on such occa- 

 sions to let tigers know that there are other men about, 

 and that they have not a solitary individual to tackle ; 

 even a man-eater recoils from attacking several men in 

 a group ; but, if hungry, it will often carry off the last 

 man of the batch as they hurry along the haunted road. 



Two small isolated bones are found in the shoulders of 

 a tiger, named beernecks, which are greatly valued by the 

 natives as charms, and which as well as the whiskers 

 will assuredly be stolen, unless the sahib looks after them 

 himself. They are unconnected with any other bone, 

 being embedded in a mass of muscle, to which they 

 probably act as supports or fulcra. The fat, too, is another 

 product of the tiger, to which great value is attached, it 



