图书图片
PDF
ePub

toot, awah, awah!" At the same moment, he saw the white form and the goggling eyes among the branches.

Tim's heart was touched. "It's a real ghost and no mistake!" said he; "it's a terrible warning, and I'll go home." This he did, and such was the effect, that he never swallowed a drop of spirits from that time. He took the pledge four days after, and when he was asked the reason, he only replied, "That he had heard a temperance lecturer in the woods saying: "Hoot, toot-awah-awah-turn aboutgo home!"

[graphic]

Fearful Encounter with a Lioness.

[graphic]

LETTER from a young friend of PETER PARLEY, in India, informs him of a fearful encounter with a lioness, which cannot be unacceptable to his young readers.

In June, 1851, he says, "I set out to join my regiment, then lying at Deesa. On the night of the 22nd, my tent was pitched about twenty miles from a village called Ghoasnaird, on the banks of the river Barnasse. I travelled with a double set of servants, camels, &c., and by keeping one set in advance, I had nothing to do but to ride from tent to tent, everything being prepared for my reception. Devotedly fond of field sports, I had pursued them with the utmost avidity since my first arrival in India. The country I was now travelling through abounded in game, particularly hog and black buck, and I anticipated, with the delight which a sportsman alone can feel, the havoc I should make amongst them.

"Therefore, early on the morning of the 23rd, I travelled the distance from where I had slept, to my tent, near

[graphic][merged small][merged small][merged small]
[blocks in formation]

Ghoasnaird, on a camel, and, having partaken of a capital breakfast, I eagerly interrogated my shikaree as to what prospect of sport. He told me there was plenty of hog. I gave immediate directions to get out the horses, and was soon mounted on a favorite Arab that had been at the death of as many hogs as any horse in India, my servant riding my second horse with a spare spear. A Sycee leading a third, and another with my rifle, these, with fourteen Coolies or beaters, completed the party.

"The country through which we passed was of an undulating character, and interspersed over it were numerous small covers of tamarisk. At this time of year there were no signs of cultivation. We had beat a considerable quantity of ground without success, arousing only a few pigs that were too small to ride after, and my patience and good humour were rapidly evaporating, when my shikaree pointed out the pug or track of a large boar. It appeared quite fresh, and I determined to follow it. We proceeded above a mile, every moment in the hope of rousing him, when, turning the angle of a small cover, we suddenly came upon a dead bullock. About twenty yards to the right of it was another, and not a hundred in advance was the hog we were pugging. The Coolies collected round it, and I heard them repeating the word, lions, lions. Enraged at being baffled of my expected sport, and my blood up, I dismounted, and my shikaree showed me the lion's track. We could make out distinctly that there were six, and as it is their habit to return at night and devour their prey, I made no doubt that they were still in the immediate neighbourhood. I seized my rifle, and after considerable remonstrance, and with some

« 上一页继续 »