The Tigef 205 



small gazelle-horn primer. His person is bedecked with 

 amulets, and his beard, he being an elderly man, is dyed 

 red — if he were young, it would be stained gray. But 

 despite this man's grotesque appearance^ he possesses a 

 profound knowledge of wood-craft, and as a tracker and 

 interpreter of signs, no savage or white prodigy of the 

 wilderness who ever embellished the pages of a certain 

 style of romance can surpass him. 



This worthy delivers himself somewhat as follows : 

 " May I be your sacrifice ! Whilst searching with eager- 

 ness for these sons of the devil, your slave beheld the 

 footprints of a tiger. Alia ke Qoodrut, it is the power of 

 God ; then why should your servant defile his mouth with 

 lies .' These tracks were made by the great-grandfather of 

 all tigers. The livers of Chinneah and Gogooloo turned 

 to water at the sight, but sustained by my Lord's con- 

 descension I followed them to a ndld, and he was standing 

 by a pool. Karinda and tamarisk bushes grew more 

 thickly than lotus flowers in Paradise, but I saw clearly 

 that the unsainted beast was bigger than a buffalo bull. 

 His teeth were as iron rakes, his eyes glared like bonfires, 

 and the spirits of those whom he had devoured sat upon 

 his head." This with many aspirations, to the effect that 

 unquenchable fire might consume the souls of the tiger's 

 entire family. 



This rhodomontade — quite in keeping, however, with 

 the individual and his country — means that a large tiger 

 was seen, and will be found for us next day. 



The one that Kasim Ali, the eloquent, saw by the pool 

 was making ready for his nightly excursion ; for although 



