8o IN THE INDIAN JUNGLE. 



the Governor and Council of Fort St. George, and 

 set at defiance the united efforts of the English, 

 the Nizam, and the Mahrattas for twenty years. 

 The ruthless proselytizing of the bigoted Tipu 

 alienated these brave clansmen and turned them 

 into bitter foes, and thus hastened the destruction 

 of that mighty kingdom which his father Hyder 

 had founded with their help. 



Under British rule this once famous soldiery 

 have settled down into peaceful cultivators, but 

 they still retain much of their traditional habits 

 as huntsmen, and at stated intervals assemble in 

 large numbers and organise a regular battue of all 

 the game in their neighbourhood. Armed with 

 short stabbing spears they will fearlessly meet the 

 raging wild boar in full career, and with a well- 

 planted stab nearly sever the shoulder from the 

 body of the brute, while they leap nimbly aside to 

 avoid its formidable tusks, still retaining hold of 

 the spear, which they never throw. A favourite 

 weapon with which they kill hare, jackals, and 

 birds of all kinds is the kirasoo, or curled stick, 

 a kind of Indian boomerang. The kirasoo is made 

 from the ironwood shrub, common all over Mysore. 

 It is a spiral stick about three feet long, and 

 ending in a knob. Its weight varies from eight 

 to twelve ounces. There are two methods of 

 throwing the kirasoo, and in both the narrow 

 end is held in the hand, the knob being forward. 

 If an object on the ground is aimed at, the kirasoo 

 is thrown under-arm with a jerk, its flight being 

 straight with a screw motion. Immediately the 



