EARLY DAYS IN OUDH 53 
cattle, but they were sufficient to fill us with 
astonishment, and also with faith in his power. 
The curious sequel to this story is that on our re- 
turn to Duduaghat we tried an incantation taught 
to my Brahmin orderly, consisting chiefly in light- 
ing oil-lamps and in arranging grains of rice and 
spices, with the object of slaying an old tiger that 
had long lived near the bungalow, and had evaded 
all our skill by his cunning. Suffice it to say that 
we found this beast; that he strolled; as if dazed, 
in front of the elephants, and, while crossing the 
shallow river Soheli to gain the tree-forest, was 
fired at three times, and escaped unscathed. The 
charm as we had prepared it was evidently potent 
enough to bewilder the tiger, but not sufficiently so 
to insure good shooting. 
In after - years I often questioned wandering 
“ fakirs,” holy hermits and other individuals lead- 
ing the simple and solitary life in wild places in the 
forests, as to their attitude to the animal life around 
them ; and they gave me to understand that power 
over the beasts of the field was one of the earliest 
results of their self-imposed austerities. None ex- 
pressed any fear of attack from their wild neighbours, 
and one even offered to call them up if I would 
promise not to shoot them on arrival; and I have 
personally no reason to doubt the authority claimed 
by some over wild beasts, whether this power is 
conferred by a holy life, or, as in the case of our 
Tharu, is accompanied by the fleshly lusts of gluttony 
and drunkenness. The Tharus certainly have a great 
name for witchcraft amongst the plains-folk, but as 
this is also the case in regard to many jungle tribes 
