NATIVE IDEAS OF CLAIM. 141 



presented herself with her three little children, and the 

 general impression appeared to be that the proper thing for 

 me to do, was either to give her a substantial bonus then 

 and there, or at least a promise of a comfortable little life 

 pension. Being a " griff, " this popular notion struck me as 

 somewhat illogical ; for what had I done, and who was I, 

 that I should pay a deodand for the tigress which had killed, 

 eaten, and digested a man never seen by me, and whose 

 name had never reached my ears ? The widow clearly ex- 

 pected this much of me, and the dusky crowd accepted the 

 claim as quite reasonable. The Darogha an official of the 

 Salt department alone seemed to have some doubts on the 

 subject, and was guarded in the expression of an opinion ; 

 but enlarging upon it, and drawing upon his memory for 

 similar instances, quoted cases of certain illustrious gentle- 

 men having granted a bonus, a pension, or even a piece of 

 land belonging to the Government, to the widows or family 

 of those shot by them through mistake and misadventure, 

 and of others maimed for life, who had imprudently got 

 into the way of the spent bullets or shot. These obser- 

 vations, and the very apt precedents quoted by the Darogha, 

 being received by the local public with high approval, and 

 by the widow with renewed howls and cries, I began to find 

 myself regarded as one trying to evade a plain duty ; how- 

 ever I explained as well as I was able that I was but a poor 

 man, and had already devoted as much time and money as I 

 could well afford in the destruction of the common enemy ; 

 that I had done no harm to the deceased husband and father ; 

 I had not bound him as a victim, and sat over him for the 

 tigress as an Eastern potentate might do; nor had I ever 

 seen him ; and lastly, that the widow, appearing quite young, 

 might live as long as I did, and it was not reasonable to ex- 

 pect that a pension should be paid by me for forty or fifty 

 years, for no default on my part, and no injury done to any 

 one ; that if any party was bound to give the pension to the 

 widow it ought to be the Government in whose service the 

 deceased was when he met with death; my remarks did not 



