130 SPORT IN BENGAL. 



be discovered ; and there were grounds for the belief that her 

 absences for a week or so were attributable to an occasional 

 search for a mate ; failing to find him she returned alone to 

 her old haunts and murderous depredations. 



On the night of the fourth day after my arrival, and close 

 upon midnight, I was awakened from a deep sleep by the 

 cries of the " pheeow " (or pheal), cries so fearful and blood- 

 curdling as to appal those who have never before heard them ; 

 as a matter of fact they chill the blood of many who have 

 heard them often, and who know well the ignoble throats from 

 which they proceed and what they often portend. This yell 

 went up in the still midnight air in rapid succession half a 

 dozen times a mile or so distant from my little camp, and 

 then all was again deep silence. Others besides myself had 

 heard and marked it, and with muttered warnings to each 

 other and prayers for protection, awaited with me for a repe- 

 tition. A quarter of an hour passed and then once more rose 

 that fearful howl, but happily fainter and more distant, and 

 then the ghostly form of Doolap, clothed in white from 

 head to foot, appearing at the tent door, stood mute and still 

 intently listening. Finding me awake, my trusty esquire 

 quietly made his " official report " that the tigress had re- 

 turned and would be heard of next day, and receiving an 

 assent he withdrew as silently as he had appeared. 



From sunrise to high noon we waited in camp the ghastly 

 news we expected, but it did not come ; and then we sallied 

 forth in search of fresh tracks in the mud left moist by the 

 morning's flood tide. For full two hours we sought in vain, 

 and then at length a long distance from camp there they were 

 leading from the hard open ground to the creek, into the thorny 

 jungle of which they entered, heading away from my camp*. 



The foot-prints proved that the tigress had walked very 

 leisurely without searching for prey, thus far at least, into 

 the heavy jungle. We did not dare to carry on the pursuit ; 

 indeed, we could have penetrated it only on hands and knees, 

 seeing very little before us, nor could we detect any foot- 

 prints leading out again, though we proceeded a mile or more 



