INTRODUCTORY 11 



twice from Raipur in the Central Provinces to 

 the border of the Madras Presidency, and on 

 several other tours in the United and Central 

 Provinces. She was amazingly sure-footed, and 

 negotiated successfully year after year the peril- 

 ous paths on the slopes above the Giri River in 

 the hills near Simla, where mules used to meet 

 with disaster. I have trotted her in her prime, 

 twenty miles along the Grand Trunk road from 

 Farrah to Agra in two and a half hours ; and she 

 was a fine swimmer, quite without fear in the water 

 and obeying the bridle and voice in the same 

 way as on land. I swam with Mary, both with 

 and without a saddle, the fords of the Giri in 

 high flood on two or three occasions ; and if at 

 any time I hesitated, owing to the force of the 

 current, she would reach at the bridle and 

 encourage me to launch away. As the fords 

 were always immediately above rapids, the per- 

 formance was a trial to the nerves ; and, if the 

 mare had lost her head, would have been very 

 dangerous. 



She was also very gentle and affectionate, and 

 took great interest in what was going on around her. 

 On one occasion, when I was playing a big mahser, 

 her syce Mihndu was looking on, with the mare 

 at the end of a long rope. As the fish, yielding 

 to the pressure, loomed up from the deep water 

 in the pool, the mare took two or three paces 

 forward and stood alongside us with her ears 

 cocked, to see what was going on. 



When she was twenty years old I galloped 

 down, on her back, a wounded nilgai bull after a 

 long chase. When the bull stood and faced us I 



