256 ROUGHING IT IN SOUTHERN INDIA 



— a Mr. L. — will show. He said that once when he was 

 staying at a hill station in Northern India — its name I have 

 forgotten — he managed to twist his ankle when taking a 

 stroll one evening, and sat down by the roadside to wait 

 till some person should pass, who would either get help for 

 him or give him a lift. A man with a bullock-cart was the 

 first to come along, and with his help he clambered into the 

 back of it. A little boy was sitting in front. Presently 

 the moon rose, bright as day, showing up everything clearly. 

 With sharp angles at intervals, there were long straight 

 stretches of road ; a wall of rock rose on one hand, and the 

 precipitous hillside sloped away on the other, a bushy, 

 grassy bank serving for parapet. As they were crawling 

 up a steep gradient the driver remarked quietly and coolly 

 that he saw a tiger lying on the bank a little farther up, 

 his head their way, so that he must also see them ; he 

 thought they had better go straight on without change of 

 movement. Mr. L., looking through the cart, saw that it 

 was as the man said : a tiger was lying there quite at his 

 ease, watching their approach. In a moment or so they 

 were abreast of him, and it would have been only natural 

 if the bullocks had bolted either then or sooner, but they 

 simply padded past without looking to right or left, or 

 showing the least sign of fear. The mat cover of the cart 

 momentarily hid the tiger from their view, but when he was 

 again visible — through the back end now — he had not 

 changed his attitude. He never moved, beyond turning his 

 grand head slowly to gaze after them, as might a friendly 

 old cow in a pasture ; and though the moonlight shadows 

 presently veiled his body, his eyes glowed like lamps, and 

 were clearly seen for quite a long distance after they had 

 left him behind. Mr. L. told us he did not know what he 

 had expected to happen — something surely ; but nothing 

 whatever did happen. On asking the driver what he would 

 have done if the tiger had sprung upon his bullocks, he 



