ROUGHING IT IN SOUTHERN INDIA 265 



1 moo ' piping up shrilly and quaintly in imitation of her 

 deep-chested, organ-like note, the which — all in an instant — 

 changed to an angry bellow. Almost simultaneously was 

 heard the savage, echoing roar of a tiger. Such was the 

 overture to the grandest, the most wonderful concert of 

 forest- voices ears could ever listen to. The tiger, in search 

 of prey, had come across the calf, made sure of it, and was 

 confronted with its mother instead. We heard her furious 

 bellowing, and the pawing of her hoofs as she tore and 

 ploughed up the earth, beating him off with lowered head 

 and threatening horns, all of which we could well picture 

 just as it must have been taking place. At the same time, 

 and, as it seemed, at our very feet, were heard the tiger's 

 infuriated roars as he bounded from side to side in his 

 baffled attempts to spring on her neck from behind the 

 shoulder — his usual method — with the idea of weighting her 

 down and disabling her, so that he could drag away the 

 calf from beneath her body ; her efforts, meanwhile, being 

 all bent on covering it. And we had pictured it all truly, 

 for we afterwards found the calf's tiny hoof-prints amongst 

 her broad ones ; not many of them either, showing how still 

 the terrified little creature had kept. 



It much distressed us to know that bison and tiger must 

 fight it out, the night being so inky black that F. could do 

 no good by attempting a rescue. Impossible as it was to 

 distinguish anything with certainty, had he interfered he 

 might only have wounded one or other, thus making matters 

 worse. 



With such sounds of battle within earshot the dogs could 

 not be expected to hold their tongues, and their resonant 

 voices contributed to the confusion of noises that woke the 

 echoes. Moreover, in the thick of it all, without our having 

 noticed a change in wind or sky, a hurricane sprang up 

 which would have whirled off our thatches but that they were 

 made to withstand such onslaughts, while boughs and old 



