254 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA 



place lie could well go to for water and shade. So we 

 circled round the outside of tlie cover, and, finding no 

 track leading out, considered Mm fairly ringed. We 

 tlien went over to tlie village for brealdast, intending 

 to return in the heat of the day. 



There I was told by one of the mahouts a story, which I 

 afterwards heard confirmed from the lips of one of the 

 principal actors, regarding a notable encounter with tigers 

 in the very cover where we had ringed the man-eater. It 

 was in 1853 that the two brothers N. and Colonel G. beat 

 the cover for a family of tigers said to be in it. One of 

 the brothers was posted in a tree, while G. and the other N. 

 beat through on an elephant. The man on the tree first 

 shot two of the tigers right and left, and then Colonel G. 

 saw a very large one lying in the shade of a dense bush, and 

 fired at it, on which it charged and mounted on the ele- 

 phant's head. It was a small female elephant, and was 

 terribly punished about the trunk and eyes in this encounter, 

 though the mahout (a bold fellow named Ramzan, who was 

 afterwards in my own service) battered the tiger's head 

 with his iron driving-hook so as to leave deep marks in 

 the bones of his skull. At length he was shaken ofi, and 

 retreated ; but when the sportsmen urged in the elephant 

 again, and the tiger charged- as before, she turned round, 

 and the tiger, catching her by the hind-leg, fairly pulled 

 her over on her side. My informant, who was in the how- 

 dah, said that for a time his arm was pinned between it 

 and the tiger's body, who was making efiorts to pull his 

 shikari out of the back seat. They were all, of course, 

 spilt on the ground with their guns ; and Colonel G., getting 

 hold of one, made the tiger retreat with a shot in the 

 chest. The elephant had fled from the scene of action, and 

 the two sportsmen then went" in at the beast on foot. 

 It charged again, and when close to them was finally 

 dropped by a lucky shot in the head. But the sport 

 did not end here; for they found two more tigers in 

 the same cover immediately afterwards, and killed one 

 of them — or four altogether in the day. The worrjdng 

 she had received, however, was the death of the elephant, 

 which was buried at Bhadiigaon — one of the few instances 



