3 82 A Sportswoman in India 



earth beneath his bed ; explained on the morrow by 

 the final upheaval of the dry mud, and the emergence 

 of a crocodile ! 



The carelessness of natives, their foolhardiness in 

 connection with danger of all sorts, is incredible ; it 

 must arise from crass stupidity quite as much as from 

 the spirit of Kismet, in which they blindly live. The 

 following is a last example connected with a subject 

 which must begin to pall upon my readers. 



It was reported upon the Jumna that a crocodile 

 had been seen, but the servants belonging to a camping 

 party ridiculed the idea of danger even if this were 

 so, either could or would not believe their word, and 

 calmly proceeded to ford the river, most of them 

 splashing across it in a shallow place lower down ; 

 all except one man, who, to save himself the trouble 

 of riding on another fifty yards, proceeded to plunge 

 through in a deeper place. He reached the middle 

 of the stream, looked round, laughed at the cavalcade 

 wading across down below, . . . the laugh died upon his 

 lips a crocodile was upon him with a gigantic spring ! 

 Its teeth met in the saddle, which it literally tore off 

 the horse's back ; the horse stood paralysed with fright. 

 The man, in some inexplicable way, had escaped the 

 great jaws, and was now positively hurling himself 

 through the water towards the bank. Another instant, 

 and the crocodile dashed after him. But Providence 

 had ordained that the sahib should be carrying his 

 rifle ; a bullet turned the crocodile, he swam back 

 into deep water, and vanished as suddenly as he had 



