THE TIGER 239 



I had barely time to get the people on foot safely up trees 

 wlien tlie tigress came at me in tlie most determined manner. 

 She looked just like a huge cat that had been hunted by 

 dogs — ^her fur all bedraggled and standing on end, eyes 

 glaring with fury, and emitting the hoarse coughing roar 

 of a charging tiger that no one, to the very close of his tiger- 

 shooting, hears without a certain quickening of the blood. 

 The first two shots hit fair, but did not stop her ; and she 

 was not more than a few yards from the elephant's trunk 

 when the third ball caught her clean in the mouth, knocking 

 out one of her canine teeth and passing down the throat 

 into the chest. She could do no more, but lay roaring and 

 worrying her own paws till I put an end to her with another 

 shot in the head. She was a lean, greyhound-made brute, 

 scarcely bigger than a panther. The LaUa was avenged, 

 but the poor fellow was beyond any help that the sight of 

 his enemy might have afforded him ; and notwithstanding 

 every care — ^for he was the favourite of everybody who 

 knew him — ^he sank under the exhausting drain of so many 

 fearful wounds. 



Very different from the old Lalla is the usual pattern 

 of tiger shikari. He will probably be a tall swaggering 

 Mahomedan, brushing out his whiskers to the hkeness 

 of a tiger's, and, to add ferocity of expression, dyeing 

 them when young a steely blue and when old a rusty 

 red ; clad in elaborate jungle-coloured raiment, and hung 

 with belts and pouches of sambar leather supporting a 

 perfect armoury of cut-throat weapons which he has not 

 the faintest idea of using ; bragging sky high of his own and 

 his master's doughty exploits ; insufferable to the people, 

 and lazy as a pampered lap-dog ; with just enough know- 

 ledge of his work, gained in his early days by carrying the 

 water-bottle of some real sportsman, to concoct a plausible 

 but utterly fictitious story at every place he comes to; 

 and convicted at every turn of Ijdng, stealing, and every 

 deadly sin; — yet possibly the admiration of a gulhble 

 master, on whom a portion of the glory of his whiskers 

 and tall talk is reflected, as he struts about his house in 

 cantonments in full war-paint, snapping the locks of his 

 brand-new sixty-guinea rifles. 



