MY FIKST TIGER. 125 



which to meet tigers on foot ; however, I had devoured every 

 book on Indian sport on which I could lay hands, and had 

 stored up in my mind numerous means and artifices by which 

 these animals were to be found and overcome ; furthermore, 

 so enthusiastic was I on the subject of sport of every kind, 

 that when not thinking, reading, or talking about it by clay, 

 I dreamt of it at night ; hog-hunting being the favourite 

 theme waking or sleeping. 



Accordingly the invitation given was promptly accepted 

 and acted upon, so that in less than a week after its receipt 

 I was upon the field of my future triumph or discomfiture. 

 The first intelligence gathered was not encouraging, it being 

 reported that for a week prior to my arrival the tigress had 

 not been heard of, and the hope was expressed that she had 

 gone off elsewhere, where the inhabitants, ignorant of her 

 wiles and ferocity, were less cautious than those she left 

 behind her. 



I met and conversed with a man who had been rescued 

 from her fangs with the loss of an arm ; and as well as I could 

 ascertain from a somewhat rambling and incoherent state- 

 ment, it appeared that a month or six weeks before, he was 

 walking at the edge of the jungle in the early morning, in 

 company with two or three others whose business was to cut 

 firewood ; they were conversing as they proceeded onwards 

 without thought of any danger, since there was no heavy 

 covert near, and the man was standing for an instant to 

 point out something to his companions, when with a low growl 

 the tigress was upon him, springing from a bunch of grass 

 hardly capable of hiding a hare, and he was seized by the 

 shoulder, into which was buried one of her upper fangs, 

 while her huge widespread paws clasped him in an iron 

 grip. My informant further stated, that on first being seized 

 he was not conscious of any great pain, and he supposed, 

 rightly, no doubt, that he fainted ; however, when he re- 

 covered his senses, he felt himself being dragged by the arm 

 through bushes and thorns, the tigress uttering low angry 

 growls, seemingly in answer to the loud shouts raised by his 



