S8 NATURAL HISTORY. 



who then either shoot or stab him to death with spears. Another mode of effecting his death is to lay 

 a bait, by tying up a Cow or Goat in some spot the Tiger is wont to frequent. Near this, on a machan, 

 or on the branch of a tree, or from behind some extemporised screen, the shikarie waits his approach 

 at night, and when the bait is seized takes aim, and often succeeds in destroying him, though it not 

 unfrequently happens that in the uncertain light he misses altogether, or only wounds, in which case 

 a second chance is seldom obtained." 



The perils of Tiger-hunting are great and varied. In the following instance related by Sir Joseph 

 Fayrer a large comic element was introduced, although the fun is probably more striking to us to read 

 of than it was to the hunter and his mahout who took part in it : 



" A rather curious Tiger-hunt, in which the Tiger seemed to think that he should have his share 

 of the sport as well as the ' shikarie,' occurred some short time ago in the Dhoon. A gentleman, 

 well known iii Dehra, an enthusiastic though rather inexperienced sportsman, they say, went out 

 about a month ago, into the Eastern Dhoon, for a day or two's shooting. Arrived on the ground, he 

 was seated in his houdah on the Elephant, looking out anxiously for game of some sort, when the 

 mahout suddenly cried, ' Sh6r, Sahib ; burra, Sher !' for a Tiger had made his appearance unexpectedl) 

 close to the Elephant. The gentleman hurriedly fired, and planted a ball from his rifle, not in the 

 Tiger's shoulder, but in his abdomen. This mistake must have been due to surprise at the Tiger's 

 sudden advent on the scene, and the consequently hurried shot ; otherwise such a want of knowled 

 of anatomy as was evinced in seeking a vital spot in the abdomen would be unpardonable. The con- 

 sequences of the mistake were serkms ; for the Tiger, resenting the sudden disturbance in the region 

 where the remains of his last kill were peacefully reposing, charged the Elephant, and, by a spring, 

 succeeded in planting his fore-paws on her head, while his hind legs clawed and scratched vigorously 

 for a footing on her trunk. 



" Imagine the feelings of the mahout, with a Tiger within six inches of his nose ! the Elephant 

 trumpeting, shaking, and rolling with rage and pain, till he was barely able to maintain his seat on 

 her neck at all ; and the occupant of the houdah, too, tumbled from top to bottom, and from side to 

 side of it, as if he were a solitary pill in a pillbox too large for him. Of course, in this predicament, 

 he was utterly unable to use his rifle to rid the Elephant of the unwelcome head-dress she was, 

 perforce, wearing. The attempt to fire, in all that shaking, would probably have resulted in his 

 blowing out the mahout's brains instead of the Tiger's, or in his shooting himself. Meanwhile the 

 mahout, with the courage of despair, slipped out of the gaddda, or cushion, on which he sat, and, 

 rolling it round his left arm, and taking the iron gujbag in his right, assailed the Tiger manfully about 

 the ears. But, being thick-headed, he did not seem to mind the gujbag at all ; for, after taking a bite 

 at the Elephant's forehead, he calmly continued his struggles for a footing on the reluctant and ever- 

 dodging trunk, heedless of the rain of blows on his thick skull, and, no doubt, promising himself to 

 square accounts presently by swallowing the mahout, gujbag, and all. But the Elephant was 

 beginning to see that she couldn't shake the Tiger off, so she tried another plan ; and, making an 

 extempore battering-ram of herself, with the Tiger as a buffer, she charged straight at a sal-tree, 

 thinking to make a Tiger-pancake on the spot. But the sal-tree, alas ! was a small one, and gave way 

 under the shock, and away went tree, Tiger, and Elephant into an old and half filled-up obi, or Elephant 

 pit, which happened to be conveniently placed to receive them just on the other side of the fallen tree. 

 The Tiger and the mahout were both knocked off by the shock and fall ; but the latter, luckily for 

 himself, fell out of the pit, the former into it, under the Elephant. The Elephant now had her share of 

 the sport, and gave the Tiger such a kicking while he lay under her, making a kind of shuttlecock of 

 him between her fore and hind legs, that the breath must have been almost kicked out of him ; then 

 deeming she had done enough for honour and glory, and that she couldn't eat the Tiger if she did kill 

 him, she commenced climbing out of the pit, whose crumbled and sloping sides luckily made the 

 scramble out practicable. The mahout, who had by this time picked himself and his scattered wits 

 up, rushed round and caught her by the ear just as she reached the level, and was preparing for a bolt, 

 and scrambling rapidly up to his perch on her neck, succeeded in stopping her and turning her face to 

 the foe once. more. The Elephant being now under command, our sportsman at length resumed his 

 proper share in the proceedings, and the Tiger being still at the bottom of the pit, breathless, if not 

 senseless, from the kicking he had undergone, by a well-directed shot put him finally hors de combat, 



