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I forgot to say that as the tiger broke out one of the village shikarees had fired at and, he declared, wounded him. "It was already getting late in the afternoon, and it was hopeless to attempt to beat the jungle that night.
Our camp, although so high up, was not more than six miles from Poshana, and from thence we drew all our supplies, such as milk, eggs, and fowls, &c., the coolies' and shikarees' subsistence being deducted from their pay. Our own living was not expensive: fowls, threepence each for large, three-halfpence small; milk, three-halfpence per quart, and eggs, twelve for the like amount, or one anna.
After an almost perpendicular ascent up natural flights of steps, we reached our next stage, Poshana a little mud-built, flat-roofed settlement on the mountain-side. Here we engaged a couple of "shikarees," or native sportsmen, and made preparations for a DETOUR into the snows of the Peer Punjal in search of game.
Of course, we should not go up dressed as we are, but as shikarees, and when we went into a village, should begin by asking whether the people are troubled with any tigers in the neighbourhood. You see, I specially came out here to go into Mysore in disguise, and I should be getting a little practice in this way, besides obtaining news for you." "I am certainly anxious to get news, Dick.
So there are but few shikarees, and the tigers multiply and are a curse to us. "We are but poor people, but if you choose to stay here for a time, we will pay something for every tiger you kill; and we will send round to the other villages, within ten miles, and doubtless every one of them will contribute, so that you might get enough to pay you for your exertions."
On the peasant opening it, a group of soldiers demanded to see the men who had entered. "We are here," Surajah said, coming forward. "What do you want?" "We want to know who you are, and where you come from." "Any one in the village could have told you that," Surajah said. "We are shikarees, and have come here to destroy tigers.
We might still say that we are shikarees, but that tigers had become scarce on the other side of the hills, and, hearing a talk that Tippoo and the English are going to war with each other, we made up our minds to go to Seringapatam, and enlist in his army." "That would do very well," Surajah agreed.
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