It happened, a day or two after the conversation with my father which I have related, that a tigress with a cub came into a small tract of jungle which lay near our village; the first day she was seen she killed a shepherd, the second day another man who had gone to look for his body, and the third she grievously wounded the Potail of the village, a man who was held in universal estimation, and he died during the night. A general meeting of the villagers was held at the place set apart for deliberations, and it was determined that all the active men should proceed in a body and attack the beast in her lair. The next morning we all assembled before daybreak. There was one man, a huge large-whiskered and bearded Pathan, who volunteered to be our leader; he was literally hardly able to move for the weapons he had about him. Two swords were in his belt, which also contained an assortment of daggers of various sizes and shapes; a long straight two-edged sword hung over his left shoulder, the point of which nearly touched the ground; he had also a shield across his back, and in his right hand a matchlock with the match lighted. He addressed my father as we came up. "Salaam aleikoom! Ismail Sahib," said he, "is a quiet person like you coming out with us, and the Sahib zadah too?" "Yes, Khan," replied my father, "it is incumbent on all good men to do their utmost in a case of need like this; who knows, if the brute is not killed, but that some one else may become food for it?" "Inshalla!" said the Khan, twisting up his mustachios, and surveying himself, "we have determined that the brute dies to-day. Many a tiger has fallen from a shot from my good gun, and what is this brute that it should escape! May its sister be defiled; the only fear is, that it will not stand to allow us to prove that we are men, and not dogs before it?" "As to that," said my father, "we must take our chance; but say, Khan, how will you move with all those weapons about you? Why, you could not run away were she to rush out." "Run away!" cried the Khan; "are our beards to be defiled by a brute? What are you thinking on this morning to suppose that Dildar Khan ever turned from anything in his life? Only let it come out, I say, and you will see what use the weapons will be! Trust to me single-handed to finish it: first I shall shoot it with my matchlock; it will be wounded; then I shall advance on it thus," said he, drawing the long sword and flourishing it, at the same time twirling round and round, and leaping in every possible direction. "There!" said he, quite out of breath, "there! would not that have finished it? Why I am a perfect Roostum in matters of this kind, and killing a tiger is only child's play to Dildar Khan! why, I could eat one, tail and all. But come along, and when the play begins, let no one come in Dildar Khan's way," said he to the assembled group, "for, Inshalla! I mean to show you poor ignorant people how a tiger can be killed by a single man."