TIGER-HUNTING IN CHINA 231 



men, and children, who watched the processes 

 of bathing, dressing, and eating breakfast much as 

 we might observe the Wild Man of Borneo taking 

 dinner at the dime museum. This was embarrassing, 

 and became, before many days, extremely irritating, 

 though it was a rather difficult matter effectually 

 to drive them away. The hunter- men had procured 

 long, slender bamboo poles and were winding strips 

 of cloth about their tips, these latter being dipped 

 in oil and serving as torches to light up the interior 

 of the caves which we explored. Then, after chow, 

 we started out in single file, I following the head 

 hunter-man, quite ignorant as to where or into 

 what he would lead me. 



Knowing the lay of the land, they had no hesita- 

 tion in choosing at once the most likely caves to 

 explore ; a tramp of some four miles brought us up 

 into the rocky hills, and here at last, with the open- 

 ings of caves and passages all about us, I felt the 

 first pleasant realization that game might be near. 

 The hunter-men soon stopped above a cave which 

 led directly down into the earth, while one of them 

 led me a few yards down the hillside to station me 

 at the mouth of another opening below, Lim trans- 

 lating that they were to move through the passage 

 and drive the tiger, if he were there, down to the 

 exit which I guarded. They quickly oiled their 



