Sport on the Nilgiris and in Wynaad . Any record of the sport I have enjoyedon the hills of Wynaad, would be very incomplete didit not include you. What though you were, when Ifirst caught you, a little savage, hiding like a frighteneddeer from the white man ? What though you are onlya jungle Nayaka now ? You have stood by me withunflinching courage in more than one tight corner,ready, aye and willing, to sink or swim with -thedhoray you love so well and serve so your peerless skill I owe many a grand days sport,the memory of which will be with me when Time laysme on the shelf It
Sport on the Nilgiris and in Wynaad . Any record of the sport I have enjoyedon the hills of Wynaad, would be very incomplete didit not include you. What though you were, when Ifirst caught you, a little savage, hiding like a frighteneddeer from the white man ? What though you are onlya jungle Nayaka now ? You have stood by me withunflinching courage in more than one tight corner,ready, aye and willing, to sink or swim with -thedhoray you love so well and serve so your peerless skill I owe many a grand days sport,the memory of which will be with me when Time laysme on the shelf It were base ingratitude to leave youout of this record of the sport we have shared. So,fidus Achates, with my best salaams, and as someslight return for your loyal service, I present your fivefoot nothing of wiry shape, and your smiling phiz—true index of your trusty heart—to the public ! ^ 1 To my inexpressible regret he died after this was written from choleracontracted when with me on a visit to a rubber estate below the Chic Mara Drawn by J. MacfarlaneFrom photo, by the A jithor THE BISON 379 No European can hope to equal, much less to sur-pass, the marvellous skill in tracking possessed by thejunglemen, such as Nayakas and Kurumbas. In thisrespect my trackers, especially Chic Mara and Masigan,seem to be endowed with a sixth sense. But afteryears of practice, backed by an earnest determinationto learn, I have attained to some slight degree ofproficiency in the difficult art; and I say unhesitatinglythat until I learnt to interpret the jungle signs, the fullmeaning of sport was a sealed book to me, as it mustbe to anyone to whom the word is synonymous withthe mere killing of game. I can truly affirm that lifeholds no joy so keen, so exquisite, so unfailing as thestudy of the Book of Nature, spread out afresh eachdewy morning for the trained eye to read. Trust me,the man who allows his success to depend entirely onthe skill of an army of native shikaris, and whosep
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