WILD SPORTS OF TICDIA.•
amain. SHAILFSPEAR'S reasons for writing a book are the best in the world : his subjects are very interesting, they concern mul- titudes of people, and he understands them better than most men. All sorts of readers can relish his stirring narratives and his practidal remarks on horseflesh and cavalry tactics, but Anglo- Indians especially should study his book as the grammar of an art on which their lives and fortunes may be dependent. Every • The Wild Sports of India : with Remarks or, the Breeding and Rearing o Horses, and the Formation of Light Irregular Cavalry. By Captain Henry Shakes- pear, Commandant Plagpore Irregular Force. Published by Smith and Elder. man of them, whether he be soldier or civilian may have to ride and fight for his life at a moment's notice, and he will ride and fight all the better if he be a hunter. In frequent conflicts with the fiercest wild beasts he will have acquired consummate skill in horsemanship, confidence in the use of his weapons, and that pre- sence of mind in face of sudden danger, without which the great- est natural courage, strength, and agility, may fail their owner at his utmost need, and leave him at the mercy of an ignoble foe. There are other perils, too, which hourly beset the Englishman in India who has too much leisure, and too little scope for the inno- cent expenditure of his exuberant energies, and from these he will find a sure safeguard in the practice of field sports. Better for him that he should risk life and limb in a useful and exhilarating pursuit, than that he should take to gambling, setting, and all kinds of profligacy to escape the intolerable burden of ennui. So thinks Captain Shakespear' and though some may undervalue his opinions as those of an enthusiast, his reasoning is by no means hobbyhorsical. The Deccan, where chiefly his hunting expe- rience has lain, is a very rough country to ride over, and he warns his Inaian friends, that if they hunt as boldly as he would have them to do over the rocky ground of the Deccan, they must of necessity have falls. But what of that ? "You may break many bones without much injury." He himself has thrice had bones broken in hunting; he has been wounded by a wild boar, again by a panther, and again in action ; and now, after twenty-five years of service, he is still in good health, and capable of riding a hundred miles in the day. His favourite quarry is the boar and the panther, for these are the bravest beasts in India, and the only two before which he himself has gone down. Next to them he seems to esteem the tiger and the bear, which are so numerous and destructive, that "the report from one district —the Raipore district of Nagpore province—stated that in the years 1855-6, more than a hundred and fifty people had been killed by bears and tigers." Once he encountered a she bear, on foot, with a spear, which he drove into the animal's withers. Throwing herself on her back, as bears always do when speared, she disengaged herself from the weapon, and nearly caught him round the waist before he could deliver another blow which struck her behind the shoulder. Then, as she rolled over on her back, she exposed the white horse-shoe patch on the chest, well known to hunters as lying directly over the bear's heart ; "and, before she could recover herself, putting my ri.,o-ht hand and shikar knife between her fore-paws, I sheathed it in her heart, killing her dead. This was about the most deli- cious blow I ever dealt."
One of the villages of the Raipore district above mentioned was infested, in 1856, by two man-eating tigers, by which it had been almost entirely depopulated, only one family remaining in it at the time of Captain Shakespear's visit. He had a calf fastened as a bait near the forest in which the tigers lodged, and went out to look for them at daybreak, attended by his two shikarees, or hunters, and a guide from the village. They had not gone far, when they heard a loud roar. " The poor villager, the father of the only remaining family, whispered, " Wich hai—that is he ! that's the tiger who owns my village."
"Coming to some rocks from which I knew that the tied-up calf could be seen, and thinking that the shikaree might not have remembered the spot, I pulled him back cautiously. I looked. There was the white calf, ap- parently dead. Mangkalee remarked as much, in a whisper. The younger shikaree, Nursoo, was behind me on the left. We all gazed at a tail. The distance was some sixty yards from us, but we could not make out the tiger. At length, the end of the tail moved. Nursoo, making a similar motion with his fore-finger, whispered in my ear' Doom-hilta-bai '—(The tail's moving.) I now made out the body of the animal clear enough. Not a blade of grass nor a leaf was between us. A single forest tree, with- out a branch on it for thirty feet from the ground, was twenty yards nearer the tiger.
"It was very probable that he would see us, but it must be risked; so, pressing down my shikaree, Mangkalee, With my hand behind me, and keeping t'---.trunk of the tree between the foe and me, while I said within myself7' God be with me ! If I get behind that tree without your seeing me, inoure a dead tiger.' I passed rapidly forward. So intent was the huge beast upon the poor calf that he did not hear me. I placed the barrels of my rifle against the tree, but was obliged to wait.
"The tiger and the calf lay contiguous, tails on end to us. The calf's neck was in the tiger's mouth, whose large paws embraced his victim. I looked, waiting for some change in the position of the body to allow me to aim at a vital part
"At length the calf gave a struggle and kicked the tiger, on which the latter clasped him nearer, arching his own body, and exposing the white of his belly and chest. I pulled the trigger very slowly-, aiming at the white, and firing for his heart—he was on his left side—as if I was firing at an egg for a thousand pounds. I knew that I hit the spot aimed at ; but, to my astonishment, the tiger sprang up several feet in the air with a roar, rolled over, and towards me— for he was on higher ground than I was—when, bounding to his feet, as if unscathed, he made for the mountains, the last rock of which was within forty yards of him. I must acknowledge that, firing at a beast of this sort, with no vital part to aim at, standing as I was for some time looking at him, and on lower ground, my heart beat rather quicker that was its wont. Albeit I had never turned my back to any animal in the jungles, and not one had ever seen its shape! I Was confident, too, in my own nerve and shooting, for I had cut down, with one exception —and that one had cut ins down as the scythe does the grass—every wild beast of the forest. "Immediately the tiger sprang to his feet, and exposed his broad left side to me, I stepped from behind the tree, looked at him in the face with con-
tempt, as if he had been a sheep, and while he passed me with every hair set, his beautiful white beard and whiskers spread, and his eye like fire, with the left barrel I shot him through the heart. He went straight and at undiminished speed, each bound covering fifteen feet at least, for twenty-five yards, and then fell on his head under the lowest rock of the mountain in which was his stronghold. Up went in the air his thick, stumpy tail. Seizing my other rifle, I walked up to about fifteen yards of him—for he was still opening his mouth and gasping—and broke his back. Turning round to the poor villager who, now the tiger was dead, was afraid to come near him, I patted him on the shoulder, and said, There is your enemy, old man : now, where does the tigress live ? '—`I know nothing about her,' said the man trembling all ever (and no wonder) ; this was the owner of ray village. 'I know nothing at all of the tigress. She takes her water at the other side of the village, and a long way off.'"
That night the tigress carried off one of the captain's troopers out of the camp, though the precaution of lighting fires and post- ing sentries had not been neglected. She was pursued, but in- effectually; the night was too dark to see her, and her victim was tumble to guide the pursuit by his cries, for she had seized the poor fellow by the mouth. Two or three hours after the Rurstat had ceased, those in camp could hear the growling of the tigress, and the crunching of the poor trooper's bones. Next day she met with her deserts.
Here is the story of a desperate fight with a panther.
"Having warned the village shikaree to keep close behind me with the heavy spear he had in his hand, I began to follow the wounded panther ; but had scarcely gone twenty-five yards, when one of the beaters, who was on high ground, beckoned to me, and pointed a little below him, and in front of me. There was the large panther sitting out, unconcealed, be- tween two bushes, a dozen yards before me. I could not, however, see his head ; and whilst I was thus delayed, he came out with a roar straight at me. I fired at his cheat with a ball ; and, as he sprang upon me, the shot barrel was aimed at his head. In the next moment, he seized my left arm and the gun. Thus, not being able to use the gun as a club, I forced it, crosswise, into his mouth. He bit the stock through in one place ; and whilst his upper fangs lacerated my arm and hand, the lower fangs went into the gun. His hind claws pierced my left thigh. He tried very hard to throw me over. In the meanwhile the shikaree, who, had he kept the spear before him, might have stopped the charge of the .panther, had re- treated some paces to the left. He now, instead of spearing the panther, shouted out and struck him, using the spear as a club, In a moment the animal was upon him, stripping him of my shikar bag, his turban, my re- volving rifle, and the spear. The man passed by me, holding his wounded arm.
" fhe panther quietly crouched five paces in front of me. I knew my only chance was to keep my eye upon him. He sat with. all my despoiled property; stripped from the shikaree, around and under him. The first step I moved backwards, keeping my eye on the panther, I fell on my back into a thorn bush, having slipped upon the rock. Here I was still within one spring of the animal, .who appeared, as far as I could see, to be not at all disabled by the fight. Nothing could have saved me had he again at- tacked; but there's a sweet little cherub that sits up aloft,' to look out for the life of the wild hunter. I retreated step by step, ray face still towards the foe, till I got to my horse, and to the other beaters, who were all col- lected together some forty yards from the fight. "I immediately loaded the gun with a charge of shot, and a bullet that I perchance found; and, taking my revolver pistol out of the bolster, and sticking it into my belt, determined to carry on the affair to its issue, know- ing how rarely men recover from such wounds as mine. I was bleeding profusely from large tooth wounds in the arm ; the tendons of my left hand were torn open, and I had five claw-wounds in the thigh. The poor shikaree's left arm was somewhat clawed up, and if the panther was not killed, the superstition of the Natives would go far to kill this man. Ter- ribly frightened as he was, his wounds were not so bad as mine. I per- suaded my horse-keeper to come with me ; and, taking the hog-spear he had in his hand, we went to the spot where lay the weapons stripped from the shikaree. A few yards beyond them there crouched the huge panther. Again, I could not see his head very distinctly, but fired deliberately be- hind his shoulder. In one moment he was again upon me. I gave him the charge of shot, as I supposed, in his face, but had no time to take aim. The horse-keeper, instead of spearing, fell upon his back. In the next instant, the panther got hold of my left foot in his teeth, and threw me on my back. I struck at him with the empty gun, and he seized the barrels in his mouth. This was his last effort. I sprang up, and seizing the spear from the horse-keeper, drove it with both hands through his side, and thus killed him. I immediately had my boot pulled off. My foot bled profusely. Fortunately, the wound was in the thin part of the foot, and not in the in- step or ankle : but the teeth had met."
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