think I felt the fact of India more keenly at any time than while
Bhima Gandharva and I, slipping away from a party who were making
merry over vast allowances of pale ale and cheroots, went wandering
about under the stars and green leaves, picking our way among the huge
forms of the mild-countenanced elephants and the bizarre figures of
the camels.

[Illustration: BENGAL WATER-CARRIERS.]

On the next day, after a leisurely breakfast at eight--the hunt was
to begin at midday--my kind host assigned me an elephant, and his
servants proceeded to equip me for the hunt, placing in my howdah
brandy, cold tea, cheroots, a rifle, a smooth-bore, ammunition, an
umbrella, and finally a blanket.

"And what is the blanket for?" I asked.

"For the wild-bees; and if your elephant happens to stir up a nest
of them, the very best thing in the world you can do is to throw it
incontinently over your head," added my host, laughing.

The tiger had been marked down in a spot some three miles from camp,
and when our battle-array, which had at first taken up the line of
march in a very cozy and gentleman-militia sort of independence,
had arrived within a mile of our destination the leader who had
been selected to direct our movements caused us all to assume more
systematic dispositions, issued orders forbidding a shot to be fired
at any sort of game, no matter how tempting, less than the royal
object of our chase, and then led the way down the glade, which now
began to spread out into lower and wetter ground covered by tall