196 SPORT AND TRAVEL 



moment might come upon the towers and chimneys 

 of some lordly mansion. There was no road. One 

 passed over the greenest of grass, smooth and fresh 

 as any lawn, extending as far as one could see, ex- 

 cept where groves of wide-spreading chenar trees 

 cast their shade like oaks on a country park. Roses 

 not our wild ones, but such roses as at home are 

 brought to flower only under hothouse panes 

 and wild flowers of all colors and species grew along 

 our way and filled the air with fragrance. In the 

 midst of such surroundings, to come upon the dirty 

 little hovels of a native village, with the fresh lawn 

 extending to its very doors and the chenar trees 

 surrounding it, seemed indeed incongruous. I spent 

 the night with pillow and blanket out under a clear 

 sky, till toward morning a sharp rain drove me to 

 seek shelter in the house of the headman of the 

 village. Here my bed was a handful of straw scat- 

 tered on a baked-mud floor, with stuffy atmosphere 

 and smells indescribable, a radical and unwelcome 

 change. 



The beaters arrived at camp the following morn- 

 ing. They began to come in twos and threes, then in 

 fives and sixes, and finally in dozens, so that by the 

 time breakfast was over the entire male population 

 of some three villages was grouped about my tent. 

 With the help of the shikaris, fifty of these were 



