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Wild Beasts and Their Ways

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impossible to shoot from his back, as he could not be kept quiet. Where was the tiger? That was the question. "Close to us, Sahib!" was the reply; but on foot we could see nothing, owing to high withered grass and bush. I clambered upon the back of the refractory Bisgaum, momentarily expecting him to bolt away like a locomotive engine, and from that elevated position I was supposed to see the tiger, which was lying in the bottom of the ravine about 100 yards distant. There were so many small bushes and tufts of yellow grass that I could not distinguish the form for some minutes; at length my eyes caught the object. I had been looking for orange and black stripes, therefore I had not noticed black and white, the belly being uppermost, as the animal was lying upon its back, evidently dying. The side of the rocky hill was so steep and slippery that the elephants could not descend; I therefore changed my steed and mounted Demoiselle, from the back of which I fired several shots at the tiger until life appeared to be extinct. The ground was so unfavourable that I would not permit any native to approach near enough to prove that the animal was quite dead. I therefore instructed Bisgaum's mahout to make a detour to the right until he could descend with his elephant into the flat bottom of the watercourse, he was then to advance cautiously until near enough to see whether the tiger breathed. At the same time I rode Demoiselle carefully as near as we could safely descend among the rocks to a distance of about 40 yards; it was so steep that the elephant was impossible to turn. From this point of vantage I soon perceived Bisgaum's bulky form advancing up the dry torrent-bed. The rocks were a perfectly flat red sandstone, which in many places resembled artificial pavement; this was throughout the district a peculiar geological feature, the surface of the stone being covered with ripple-marks, and upon this easy path Bisgaum now approached the body of the tiger, which lay apparently dead exactly in his front. Suddenly the elephant halted when about 15 yards from the object, which had never moved. I have seen wild savages frenzied by the exciting war-dance, but I never witnessed such an instance of hysterical fury as that exhibited by Bisgaum. It is impossible to describe the elephantine antics of this frantic animal; he kicked right and left with his hind legs alternately, with the rapidity of a horse; trumpeting and screaming, he threw his trunk in the air, twisting it about, and shaking his immense head, until, having lashed himself into sufficient rage, he made a desperate charge at the supposed defunct enemy, with the intention of treating the body in a similar manner to that a few days previous. But the tiger was not quite dead and although he could not move to get away, he seized with teeth and claws the hind leg of the maddened elephant, who had clumsily overrun him in the high excitement, instead of kicking the body with a fore foot as he advanced. The scene was now most interesting. We were close spectators looking down upon the exhibition as though upon an arena. I never saw such fury in an elephant; the air was full of stones and dust, as he kicked with such force that the tiger for the moment was lost to view in the tremendous struggle, and being kicked away from his hold, with one of his long fangs broken short off to the gum, he lay helpless before his huge antagonist, who, turning quickly round, drove his long tusks between the tiger's shoulders, and crushed the last spark of life from his tenacious adversary. This was a grand scene, and I began to think there was some real pluck in Bisgaum after all, although there was a total want of discipline; but just as I felt inclined to applaud, the victorious elephant was seized with a sudden panic, and turning tail, he rushed along the bottom of the watercourse at the rate of 20 miles an hour, and disappeared in the thorny jungle below at a desperate pace that threatened immediate destruction to his staunch mahout. Leaving my men to arrange a litter with poles and cross-bars to carry the tiger home, I followed the course of Bisgaum upon Demoiselle, expecting every minute to see the body of his mahout stretched upon the ground. At length, after about half a mile passed in anxiety, we discovered Bisgaum and his mahout both safe upon an open plain; the latter torn and bleeding from countless scratches while rushing through the thorny jungle. On the following day the elephant's leg was much swollen, although the wounds appeared to be very slight. It is probable that a portion of the broken tooth remained in the flesh, as the leg festered, and became so bad that the elephant could not travel for nearly a fortnight afterwards. The mahouts are very obstinate, and insist upon native medicines, their famous lotion being a decoction of Mhowa blossoms, which in my opinion aggravated the inflammation of the wound. I returned Bisgaum to the Commissariat stables at Jubbulpur directly that he could march, as he was too uncontrollable for sporting purposes. Had any person been upon his back during his stampede he would have been swept off by the branches and killed; the mahout, sitting low upon his neck, could accommodate his body to avoid the boughs. The use of the elephant in India is so closely associated with tiger-shooting that I shall commence the next chapter with the tiger. CHAPTER V THE TIGER THERE is no animal that has exercised the imagination of mankind to the same degree as the tiger. It has been the personification of ferocity and unsparing cruelty. In Indian life the tiger is so closely associated with the elephant (as the latter is used in pursuit) that I select this animal in sequence to the former, from which in the ideas of sporting Indians it is almost inseparable. It is necessary to commence the description of the tiger with its birth. The female rarely produces more than three, and generally only two. These arrive at maturity in about two years. There is a considerable difference in the size of the male and female. I have both measured and weighed tigers, and I have found a great difference in their proportions, such as may be seen not only in many varieties of animals, but also in human beings; it is therefore difficult to decide upon the actual average tiger, as they vary in

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