344 COFFEE. 



and nearer came the noise, until we could hear the shouts of the 

 beaters and realize the fact that, whatever else they were doing, 

 they were kicking up a most unearthly rumpus. The first live 

 thing we saw was a pair of peafowl that came running by, but, of ^ 

 course, we disdained this game when larger sport was in prospect. 

 Then came half a dozen " Sambars," or spotted deer, out, of range 

 for us, but quite near the elephant of one of our Delhi friends, 

 who could not resist so fair a shot, and fired, knocking over one 

 of them handsomely, and wounding another with a second shot 

 from his breechloader before getting out of range. Whether or 

 not this had anything to do with preventing our seeing any tigers 

 I cannot say, but certain it is that these were all we saw in the 

 way of game, and we were soon surrounded with the army of half- 

 naked beaters upon whom had devolved the chief labor of the 

 hunt. No other promising territory, the Shikari declared, was 

 available, and therefore nothing remained but for us to make a 

 present to the beaters and return to the Maharajah's palace, ana- 

 thematizing the Shikari for not having found us a tiger, and in- 

 dulging in some sceptical observations as to the existence of tigers 

 in India anyway. The only satisfaction that we derived from the 

 trip was a photograph of ourselves as we appeared on our ele- 

 phant, when we returned, with our bloodthirsty firearms, which 

 consisted of a double rifle and a cavalry carbine, displayed in full 

 view. This was " a present " to us from the Maharajah's photo- 

 grapher as a souvenir of our trip, but we found that presents in 

 this country were given with an expectation of more valuable 

 ones in return, and our photographs, after all, proved rather 

 costly. However, our welcome was Cordial, our entertainment 

 quite princely, and the trouble taken on our behalf by our Delhi 

 friends something extraordinary ; so we perhaps ought not to 

 grumble, but we did come away somewhat under the impression 

 that tiger hunting in India was a delusion, if not a snare, and 

 that the number of the royal beasts in India had been grossly ex- 

 aggerated. 



StUl, that they exist in considerable numbers is proved by a 

 copy of the Government Blue Book, which I came across in Bom- 

 bay, in which appears the following passage : 



" One extraordinary feature of Indian life is the number of 



