200 
A NATURALIST ON THE PROWL. 
many reasons, it would be a proper thing for us to visit 
this place. The ascent was said to be steep and very 
difficult, so how could two men, honourably proud of their 
legs, prove the quality of those limbs better than by trying 
it ? A second reason was that the place was said to have 
been visited by sahebs only once before ; and if a third 
was required, there could be little doubt that the path to 
that peak would take us through many a “ forest’s shady 
scene,” and so on to the end of the quotation, which is 
unfortunately too hackneyed for repetition here. Among 
the things that own not man’s dominion are one or two, 
some say three, tigers, which have for years past success- 
fully disputed even his right to shoot them. They will kill 
a couple of fat cows, eat the whole of one and a leg of 
another, and positively refuse an interview to anybody who 
calls them to account. A Brahman gentleman, who paid 
me a complimentary visit to-day, informed me that the 
people of his village had had the pleasure of keeping one 
of these tigers for some months for an enthusiastic shikari 
of the Forest Department, but that he had failed to bring 
it to account The Brahman gentleman was evidently 
facetious, if not ironical. 
Well, we started for the shrine of Basweshwar this 
