Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-12-15

IRON Calcutta we sailed for Penang We
stopped at Rangoon. lured there by the
glamour of the gold-pinnacled pagoda of Schwe
Dagon, parting the clouds of east and west, and
to see the elephants a-piling teak"
Rangoon was bright with color, the Burmese
were plump and jolly lot, apparently pleased
with existence. The streets shimmered with
silk. There was nothing Somber about even the
priests who Strolled about in yellow robes under
brown umbrellas-the left shoulder bare If in
the first stage of priesthood, the right if in the
second.
The Burmese girls were the prettiest things
we had seen for long time. soft brown crea-
lures with vivid silk drawn tight over slender
hips, black hair sleek as a ravens wing, a white
magnolia in place over the ear. The wllacktng
white cheroot was there, too, in the picture
But we were through with Unlocking and be-
gan to be gripped by the tension of a definite
purpose and the uncertainty of its success. The
tiger hunt was drawing near We took Dutch
boat across the straits to Sumatra.
Our first objective was Brastagi, on the pla-
teau of Kara, 1900 feet high. The place fingers
in my memory as one to which must sometime
for sheer pleasure. return. There was an agree
able hotel, mainly occupied by English on holi-
day from Siam or the Malay Peninsula, set out
among rose gardens with mountains and will
derne5s flung all about it. There were seven
volcanoes on the horizon. I had felt rich, in
Africa, with two volcanoes at once. Seven
seemed to me plutocratic plethora
There was tiger at Brastagi We heard of
him through the head forester. This tiger was
in a certain strip of hilIy jungle. tiger has u
way of taking over a certain territory for his
own, rowing up and down it, now here, now
there, the hunting offers. until, at his death.
another tiger takes over the place. The jungle
this particular tiger was known to inhabit was
strip about five miles long, just about big
enough to keep him in small game.
The forester felt that he was the very tiger
for us. Inquiry discovered that the natives had
glimpSed him not long since The thing to do.
we were told, was to organize a hunt, engage a
flock of heaters to get the tiger on the move
then try to waylay him on some of the little
grass trails he might be moving on.
It was not much of a chance but it was some-
thing of one, and the head forester set himself
to engaging heaters and making arrangements
He was to notify us when everything was ir
readiness. It did not seem to us possible that
success could come from any proceeding that
involved so little preliminary effort on part,
but we were at liberty to hope.
At any rate, there was tiger there, big
tiger the natives said For years they had seen
his footprints in the paths, as they gathered
wood on the mountain or went about the work
of road-making with which white dominion &C.
cupies the dark brothers time, and sometimes
they had casually glimpsed him. In Africa
had always had to work long and hard for any
big game that had got, but felt there
reason why Fate should not relent and throw
me- offhand just one ravening tiger in the PATH
While we waited, Herbert and / vented our
Impotence in daShing about the country on the
little stations of the BatukS mad horses that
know no law but speed, going full tilt uphill OF
down. took curves with angles that swung me
out over abysSeS where / could look down and
see the pretty green spot 1000 feet below, where
the body would land The rivers under me
were silver threads. the village fields were
pygmy checker-boardS.
Each return from a ride was like return
from a hunt-full Of fresh miracle at being
alive
Then the forester announced that the beaterS
were secured and that the hunt could take place
EAGERLY we got out the familiar khaki.
bleached with African and the hard
soap of many washings opened the gun cases
and unpacked the cartridges: We were very
warlike figures as we marched out of the hotel
at dawn. and I felt foolishly incongruous to
hotels and rose gardens; more so when the for
ester met us in gray tweeds. with white spats for
leggngs and gray Homburg hat. His costume
was more suitable than ours for the motor into
which we climbed, that whirled us 10 miles away
to a point where the foreSted mountain rose
sharply from the road.
About rs ragged heaters rose from their atti-
tudes of waiting and streamed leisurely after
us as left the motor and started up q
way like a bride path into the forest. The path
mounted SO steeply. with such interminable zig
Gags, that Herbert and confided our regret that
we were not on overwhelmingly the comfort
of Sumatra had made us Slothful
Densely the jungle closed in about us and we
felt at home again in the familiar green dimnesS,