142 IN THE INDIAN JUNGLE. 



comes/ said another. Many joined in the laugh, 

 but I waited quietly till the principal men of the 

 village had assembled to talk, when I said, 

 ' Brothers, don't laugh any more, but come with 

 the poor weaver. I have something to show ' ; and 

 I strode on with the gait of an elephant with the 

 great Maharaj on his back. All the village followed, 

 and I led straight to the place where I had set my 

 trap, and the trail from there was clear. Not two 

 hundred yards off we found the body of the tiger. 

 It was a white tiger. Pure white : no spot or stripe 

 of any kind. Believe me, Sahib, when I tell you 

 it was white. A great shout went up from the 

 villagers and I was happy. Such moments come 

 seldom. 



" After a time the villagers left and only the 

 shikarees (hunters) of the village remained with me 

 to do pooja (religious ceremony). The oldest of the 

 shikarees made a slight wound in my head and took 

 some of the blood and rubbed it in on the head of 

 the tiger. I walked three times round the body of 

 the tiger, and then touched its body with my fore- 

 head while the others looked aside. We now slung 

 the tiger to a pole and took it to the village in 

 triumph. When we got there, the shikarees' wives 

 came out and washed my feet with water and 

 salaamed to me. You don't want to hear all that 

 you want to know where the danger came in. I 

 will pass over the triumphs of the day ; how the 

 Raja gave me two rupees and a dhotee (cloth) ; how 

 the villagers also rewarded me, each according to 

 his means. I was a great man that day. Don't 



