THE WHITE TIGER. 143 



be impatient, Sahib ; one likes to talk of one's 

 victories we are all alike. 



' We skinned the tiger, and found it was very 

 old fifteen years old. How do we know a tiger's 

 age ? By the number of lobes in the liver. This 

 one had fifteen distinct marks, one for each year. 

 Panthers have these marks also, but not other 

 animals. All shikarees know this, as we always 

 take out the liver for medicine. This is how we 

 judge of a tiger's age, and it is true. We pegged 

 out the skin in the sun to dry, the head being 

 boned and stuffed with straw and the mouth 

 agape. At night we rolled up the skin and placed 

 it on some sticks in an empty cow-shed. Our 

 huts were about thirty yards away ; but be- 

 side the empty shed was another in which several 

 bullocks were stalled. It was barely dark when we 

 heard the ' ough ! ough ! ' of the other tiger in the 

 distance. This we knew was the tiger calling for 

 his mate. The tiger seldom cries, only when call- 

 ing its mate ; it never speaks at other times. Soon 

 the ' ough ! ough ! ' came nearer, and we knew 

 the tiger had scented out his dead mate. Soon it 

 was near the cattle-shed, and we could hear the 

 cattle struggling in alarm. We all shouted to- 

 gether, but the tiger still kept prowling round and 

 round the empty shed. He then sprang on to the 

 roof and tore away the thatch. We now kept 

 very quiet as we began to be afraid. We heard a 

 purring sound and then a roar, and the tiger was 

 inside the empty shed. Soon we heard a great crash- 

 ing and breaking of wood, and the whole roof of 



