ANGLING FOR TIGERS 133 



delighted. The chance of bagging a tiger woke us all out of our 

 normal lethargic condition. 



After some difficulty about sixty beaters were collected ; 

 those who had come without tom-toms or other means of 

 making hideous noises, were provided with policemen's rattles 

 to add variety to the music with which the sleeping tiger was 

 to be awakened, all received a gunwad, to be afterwards ex- 

 changed for pay. The shikaries took a supply of fireworks 

 made of the hollow rind of the bael fruit filled with powder; 

 gunboys shouldered rifles, the luncheon basket and other 

 necessaries were not forgotten, and at last the procession 

 started, led by the village shikari in whose district we were. 

 This official's outfit consisted of a dirty puggree, a similar 

 loin-cloth, a long matchlock bound with brass and further 

 adorned with rows of jackal teeth surrounding the pan ; a 

 gazelle horn and a cocoanut covered with cheetah-skin con- 

 tained powder, a leather bag bullets ; in his hand he carried 

 a piece of smouldering cowdung wherewith to light the match 

 and fire his piece. 



Met by our shikaries after a long tramp, we were told that 

 the tiger had not as usual lain up near his kill, but was taking 

 his siesta near the foot of a small hill to which he had been 

 tracked. So on we went once more, cheered, however, by the 

 large "margs" deeply graven on the soft soil. At last we 

 leave our horses, and, after drawing lots with bits of grass for 

 places, go on alone with the shikaries, and a few men carrying 

 a ladder, spare rifles, &c. Three trees are chosen some distance 

 apart, and facing the hill about to be beaten, and, if not already 

 tenanted by red ants, are occupied according to lot by the three 

 would-be tiger- slayers. Helped up by a ladder, we make 

 ourselves as comfortable as the cramped, unsteady, and more 

 or less dangerous position will admit of. It being noon and 

 the hot weather, one has every opportunity to perspire freely 

 during the two hours or more which are usually passed on these 

 lofty perches. A long time elapses before the beaters get into 

 position behind the rocky hill, the base of which is hidden from 

 view >by brushwood and low trees, the tiger's present sleeping- 

 place we hope, so there is ample time to study the surroundings. 

 Everything as yet is still and sweltering in the heat. A few 

 lungoors sit in the shady nooks on the face of the hill, lizards 



