g. It was met with an avalanche of spears, some of which passed
entirely through its body, with such force were they hurled. The
charge was from a very short distance, requiring the use of the spear
rather than the bow and arrow; but after the launching of the spears,
the men not directly in the path of the charge sent bolt after bolt
into the great carcass with almost incredible rapidity. The beast,
screaming with pain and rage, bore down upon Chal-az while I stood
helpless with my rifle for fear of hitting one of the warriors who were
closing in upon it. But Chal-az was ready. Throwing aside his bow, he
crouched behind his large oval shield, in the center of which was a
hole about six inches in diameter. The shield was held by tight loops
to his left arm, while in his right hand he grasped his heavy knife.
Bristling with spears and arrows, the great cat hurled itself upon the
shield, and down went Chal-az upon his back with the shield entirely
covering him. The tiger clawed and bit at the heavy rhinoceros hide
with which the shield was faced, while Chal-az, through the round hole
in the shield's center, plunged his blade repeatedly into the vitals of
the savage animal. Doubtless the battle would have gone to Chal-az
even though I had not interfered; but the moment that I saw a clean
opening, with no Kro-lu beyond, I raised my rifle and killed the beast.

When Chal-az arose, he glanced at the sky and remarked that it looked
like rain. The others already had resumed the march toward the
village. The incident was closed. For some unaccountable reason the
whole thing reminded me of a friend who once shot a cat in his
backyard. For three weeks he talked of nothing else.

It was almost dark when we reached the village--a large palisaded
enclosure of several hundred leaf-thatched huts set in groups of from
two to seven. The huts were hexagonal in form, and where grouped were
joined so that they resembled the cells of a bee-hive. One hut meant a
warrior and his mate, and each additional hut in a group indicated an
additional female. The palisade which surrounded the village was of
logs set close together and woven into a solid wall with tough creepers
which were planted at their base and trained to weave in and out to
bind the logs together. The logs slanted outward at an angle of about
thirty degrees, in which position they were held by shorter logs
embedded in the ground at right angles to them and with thei