India and Tiger-Hunting

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1885. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER IX. BHINKERI was the name of the small hamlet from which we made our first start. The grass here was reckoned long and thick even for the Terai, so it was arranged that on this occasion I should stand in the howdah borne by the large female elephant Indoor Pari. Immediately on leaving the grove of trees occupied by the little settlement, and in and around which the herbage was beaten down, we found ourselves in a sort of wide ocean of pale-green grass reaching up to the elephants' backs. Large, dark mango trees grew either singly or in straggling lines, and looked, I thought, not unlike rocks projecting from the sea. We did not expect to get any sport here, as a large party had just preceded us, and had killed three large tigers. The natives, however, assured us that there was at least one left, for they could not only hear it, but their cattle were still being killed by one of these beasts. The head man of the village was placed on an elephant, and acted as guide, and we were soon launched on to this great strange-looking plain. Of course, owing to the grass, not a living thing could be seen; and one can only still wonder how even the oldest inhabitant contrives to form any conjecture as to the probable whereabouts of anything that has the power of locomotion. Perhaps the tigers attach themselves to the herds over whom they exercise a close and dreadful surveillance. Be this as it may, we had not proceeded far when the apparently lifeless solitude was cheered by the sound of a human voice calling out lustily from the midst of a detached and distant mango tree. We at once steered our ships in the required direction. On approaching the tree, we found ourselves in the midst of a herd of tame buffaloes, who were being guarded in some mysterious and, I shoul...