TIGER-HUNTING IN CHINA 229 



black spiders driven away, before I could make 

 up my mind that it was at all habitable. A pile of 

 straw was then shaken down in a corner for a 

 bed, and my dressing articles spread on the altar, 

 after which the seven Chinese hunter-men, who 

 from now on were to be my escort, presented 

 themselves. 



They stood grinning in a row, their almond- 

 shaped eyes sloping upwards, their yellow skins 

 burnt to bronze from work in the rice-fields, and 

 wrinkled like old parchment. With one exception 

 they were under five feet hardly the imposing 

 individuals I had pictured, who were to walk into 

 the tiger's den with only their torches to frighten 

 him and their spears to stop a charge. Their wea- 

 pons, however, looked sufficiently business-like, for 

 each carried a sort of trident with three iron prongs 

 and a heavy wooden shaft. They carried with them 

 also, in a small basket, an exact representation in 

 miniature of themselves a little Chinaman who 

 held in his hand the typical trident, and in the sand 

 which filled the basket about him were burning 

 joss-sticks. This I discovered was their idol, whom 

 they worshipped fervently and regularly, and never 

 in our subsequent hunting were they without him ; 

 for, as they told me, it was he who gave them their 

 courage to hunt and their strength to fight the tiger. 



