ROUGHING IT IN SOUTHERN INDIA 279 



that it was a case of the N.'s dog over again — that dog whose 

 life was saved by her collar giving way when she was carried 

 off by a panther. 



The men had much ado to haul the great carcase out of 

 the cleft where it was wedged before it should become rigid. 

 Indeed, it took hours of tugging and prising with ropes 

 and bamboo poles and crowbars, wielded con amore by 

 brawny arms, before the task was accomplished ; but first 

 of all the head had to be severed and brought away. That 

 alone is a serious bit of business, as I witnessed at another 

 time, for the skin at the back of the neck is fully two and a 

 half inches through. Another evidence of the giant strength 

 of a bison, which I saw and well remember, was in the sinews 

 of the hind legs — absolute cords of the thickness of a man's 

 thumb. 



When the head, slung on poles and borne by four men, 

 was brought in, my part, as always, was to make a sketch 

 of it, with careful measurements, for the subsequent mount- 

 ing. Heads vary much in contour, and all F.'s trophies 

 had to be set up exactly according to size and outline during 

 life. The skin might stretch here, or shrink there in drying, 

 but it was pulled or pinched to the proper dimensions over 

 the clay-moulding on the skull and jawbones. My sketch 

 also gave the general look — whether long and narrow, or 

 broad and short. I have been called up at four o'clock 

 in the morning to see a bison just killed near the camp — 

 so near that the death shot was heard there distinctly. 

 Great feasting was always the order of the day, and night, 

 too, on such occasions, except among those — Hindus and 

 some others — who might not eat of their sacred cow, bull 

 being near enough allied to be forbidden. All the rest were 

 in their glory ; the dogs, too ; and as long as the meat 

 lasted nothing was to be expected of anybody. They would 

 gorge themselves, sleep it off, and start afresh ; so we left 

 them to it ; but the dogs had to be limited. 



