TIGERS
The fellâhîn who came to gossip in the winter evenings round our lamp
and stove assured us there were tigers in the neighbouring mountain.
We, of course, did not accept the statement literally, but our English
friend possessed the killing instinct, and held that any feline
creatures which could masquerade in popular report as tigers would
afford him better sport than he had yet enjoyed in Syria. So when the
settled weather came we went to look for them.
For my part I take pleasure in long expeditions with a gun, though
nothing in the way of slaughter come of them. My lack of keenness at
the proper moment has been the scorn and the despair of native guides
and hunters. Once, in Egypt, at the inundation of the Nile, I had been
rowed for miles by eager men, and had lain out an hour upon an islet
among reeds, only to forget to fire when my adherents whispered as
the duck flew over, because the sun was rising and the desert hills
were blushing like the rose against a starry sky. I had chased a
solitary partridge a whole day among the rocks of En-gedi without the
slightest prospect of success; and in the Jordan valley I had endured
great hardships in pursuit of wild boar without seeing one. It was the
lurking in wild places at unusual hours which pleased me, not the
matching of my strength and skill against the might of beasts. I have
always been averse to every sort of competition. This I explain that
all may know that, though I sallied forth with glee in search of
savage creatures, it was not to kill them.
We set out from our village on a fine spring morning, attended by
Rashîd, my servant, and a famous hunter of the district named
Muhammad, also two mules, which carried all things necessary for our
camping out, and were in charge of my friend's cook, Amîn by name. We
rode into the mountains, making for the central range of barren
heights, which had the hue and something of the contour of a lion's
back. At length we reached a village at the foot of this commanding
range, and asked for tigers. We were told that they were farther on.
A man came with us to a point of vantage whence he was able to point
out the very place--a crag in the far distance floating in a haze of
heat. After riding for a day and a half we came right under it, and at
a village near its base renewed inquiry. 'Oh,' we were told, 'the
tigers are much farther on. You see that eminence?' Again a mountain
afar off was indicated. At the next village we encamped, for night
drew near. The people came out to inspect us, and we asked them for
the tigers.
'Alas!' they cried. 'It is not here that you must seek them. By Allah,
you are going in the wrong direction. Behold that distant peak!'
And they pointed to the place from which we had originally started.
Our English friend was much annoyed, Rashîd and the shikâri and the
cook laughed heartily. No one, however, was for going back. Upon the
following day our friend destroyed a jackal and two conies, which
consoled him somewhat in the dearth of tigers, and we rode forward
resolutely, asking our question at each village as we went along.
Everywhere we were assured that there were really tigers in the
mountain, and from some of the villages young sportsmen who owned guns
insisted upon joining our excursion, which showed that they themselves
believed such game existed. But their adherence, though it gave us
hope, was tiresome, for they smoked our cigarettes and ate our food.
At last, towards sunset on the seventh evening of our expedition, we
saw a wretched-looking village on the heights with no trees near it,
and only meagre strips of cultivation on little terraces, like ledges,
of the slope below.
Our friend had just been telling me that he was weary of this
wild-goose chase, with all the rascals upon earth adhering to us. He
did not now believe that there were tigers in the mountain, nor did I.
And we had quite agreed to start for home upon the morrow, when the
people of that miserable village galloped down to greet us with
delighted shouts, as if they had been waiting for us all their lives.
'What is your will?' inquired the elders of the place, obsequiously.
'Tigers,' was our reply. 'Say, O old man, are there any tigers in your
neighbourhood?'
The old man flung up both his hands to heaven, and his face became
transfigured as in ecstasy. He shouted: 'Is it tigers you desire?
This, then, is the place where you will dwell content. Tigers? I
should think so! Tigers everywhere!'
The elders pointed confidently to the heights, and men and women--even
children--told us: 'Aye, by Allah! Hundreds--thousands of them; not
just one or two. As many as the most capacious man could possibly
devour in forty years.'
'It looks as if we'd happened right at last,' our friend said, smiling
for the first time in three days.
We pitched our tent upon the village threshing-floor, the only flat
place, except roofs of houses, within sight. The village elders dined
with us, and stayed till nearly midnight, telling us about the tigers
and the way to catch them. Some of the stories they related were
incredible, but not much more so than is usual in that kind of
narrative. It seemed unnecessary for one old man to warn us gravely on
no account to take them by their tails.
'For snakes it is the proper way,' he said sagaciously, 'since snakes
can only double half their length. But tigers double their whole
length, and they object to it. To every creature its own proper
treatment.'
But there was no doubt of the sincerity of our instructors, nor of
their eagerness to be of use to us in any way. Next morning, when we
started out, the headman came with us some distance, on purpose to
instruct the guide he had assigned to us, a stupid-looking youth, who
seemed afraid. He told him: 'Try first over there among the boulders,
and when you have exhausted that resort, go down to the ravine, and
thence beat upwards to the mountain-top. Please God, your Honours will
return with half a hundred of those tigers which devour our crops.'
Thus sped with hope, we set out in good spirits, expecting not a bag
of fifty tigers, to speak truly, but the final settlement of a dispute
which had long raged among us, as to what those famous tigers really
were. Rashîd would have it they were leopards, I said lynxes, and our
English friend, in moments of depression, thought of polecats. But,
though we scoured the mountain all that day, advancing with the
utmost caution and in open order, as our guide enjoined, we saw no
creature of the feline tribe. Lizards, basking motionless upon the
rocks, slid off like lightning when aware of our approach. Two
splendid eagles from an eyrie on the crags above hovered and wheeled,
observing us, their shadows like two moving spots of ink upon the
mountain-side. A drowsy owl was put up from a cave, and one of our
adherents swore he heard a partridge calling. No other living creature
larger than a beetle did we come across that day.
Returning to the camp at evening, out of temper, we were met by all
the village, headed by the sheykh, who loudly hoped that we had had
good sport, and brought home many tigers to provide a feast. When he
heard that we had not so much as seen a single one he fell upon the
luckless youth who had been told off to conduct us, and would have
slain him, I believe, had we not intervened.
'Didst seek in all the haunts whereof I told thee? Well I know thou
didst not, since they saw no tiger! Behold our faces blackened through
thy sloth and folly, O abandoned beast!'
Restrained by force by two of our adherents, the sheykh spat
venomously at the weeping guide, who swore by Allah that he had obeyed
instructions to the letter.
Our English friend was much too angry to talk Arabic. He bade me tell
the sheykh he was a liar, and that the country was as bare of tigers
as his soul of truth. Some of our fellâh adherents seconded my speech.
The sheykh appeared amazed and greatly horrified.
'There are tigers,' he assured us, 'naturally! All that you desire.'
'Then go and find them for us!' said our friend, vindictively.
'Upon my head,' replied the complaisant old man, laying his right hand
on his turban reverently. 'To hear is to obey.'
We regarded this reply as mere politeness, the affair as ended. What
was our surprise next morning to see the sheykh and all the able men,
accompanied by many children, set off up the mountain armed with
staves and scimitars, and all the antique armament the village
boasted! It had been our purpose to depart that day, but we remained
to watch the outcome of that wondrous hunting.
The villagers spread out and 'beat' the mountain. All day long we
heard their shouts far off among the upper heights. If any tiger had
been there they must assuredly have roused him. But they returned at
evening empty-handed, and as truly crestfallen as if they had indeed
expected to bring home a bag of fifty tigers. One man presented me
with a dead owl--the same, I think, which we had startled on the day
before, as if to show that their display had not been quite in vain.
'No tigers!' sighed the sheykh, as though his heart were broken. 'What
can have caused them all to go away? Unhappy day!' A lamentable wail
went up from the whole crowd. 'A grievous disappointment, but the
world is thus. But,' he added, with a sudden brightening, 'if your
Honours will but condescend to stay a week or two, no doubt they will
return.'