THE MAHADEO HILLS 99 



wMct the people said they had never attempted but once 

 before, when one of them had broken a leg. Certainly I 

 should not have thought that any animal so large as a 

 bison could go down that place and live. 



Nothing had been seen of the tiger, and had I known 

 him as well as I afterwards did, I would not have been 

 surprised. I knew that tiger intimately for many months 

 after this, and yet I never once saw him. He was a very 

 large animal indeed, but entirely a jungle tiger, that is, 

 prejang solely on wild animals, and keeping during the 

 day to the most inaccessible ravines and thickets. He 

 frequented the bison ground round Dhupgarh, and hung 

 on the traces of the herds, apparently with an eye to the 

 young beeves. I never came across evidence of his 

 killing any of them, though I once saw a place on the 

 plateau where the whole night long he had evidently 

 baited an unfortunate cow with a calf. Within a space of 

 some twenty yards in diameter the grass had been closely 

 trampled down and paddled into the moist ground by 

 their feet, the footprints of the calf being in the centre, 

 while the tiger's mighty paw went round outside, and the 

 poor cow had evidently circled round and round between 

 the monster and her little one. I am glad to say that I 

 tracked the tiger ofi in one direction, and the courageous 

 mother and her calf safe in another. The tiger cannot, I 

 beUeve, kill even a cow bison, unless taken at a disad- 

 vantage ; and with a bull he could have no chance what- 

 ever. I seldom went out without meeting the tracks of 

 this tiger; and often followed him through his whole 

 night's wanderings, which were laid out as on a map in 

 the clean sand of the stream beds ; but I always lost him 

 in the end, though I believe he often let me pass within 

 a few yards of him. He came at rare intervals, like the 

 bison, on to the plateau ; but his regular beat was round 

 the bottom of Dhiipgarh, a thousand feet lower down. 

 Once, long ago, a tiger took up his post on the plateau, 

 and became a man-eater, almost stopping the pilgrimage 

 to Mahadeo, till he was shot by the uncle of the Thakiir. 



I followed the wounded bison buU for about a mile 

 from where he was last seen; but he was moving fast, 



