'Memoirs and Recollections of An Officer of the Indian Political Service' [‎35r] (69/156)

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prayers to him, their 'Sahib-Bahadur' to rid them of these pests. The difficulty in
complying with their demands, so far as tigers were concerned, arose from the fact
that the beasts which caused the damage could not be guaranteed to originate in the
British leased area. On the contrary, they came - in all probability - from the
surrounding forests of the State of Sirohi, from which Abu was leased. It was argued
that if anyone had a claim to get rid of a tiger in Abu, it was the Mafoarao himself
to whom they belonged, and he could not be bothered to go the trouble of eliminating the
offending animal. Even if he or one of his officials did condescend to sit up for a
tiger in his own territory, there was no guarantee that it was the one which stalked
the hills of Abu. However, there would periodically come a time when the susceptibili
ties of the Ruler could no longer be tolerated, and the Resident would overrule him and
give permission to have the tiger shot. In my time in Abu, no fewer than six tigers
met their end in this way. One of them fell to my rifle much to my delight, but tigers
are elusive and cunning beasts. To bag my single tiger I must have spent at least
thirty separate nights sitting up in uncomfortable 'machans 1 , above the tiger's kill
of the night before, usually a cow or a hill pony. On only half a dozen occasions did
he come and let me see him in the light of my torch. Then he would be gone before I
could aim and fire. On at least three occasions I must confess that I did fire and
miss. But whatever the outcome, and even on the nights when nothing came, the thrill
of waiting in the jungle and listening to the rustling of the innumerable animals
moving in the dark; deer, jackals, hyenas, porcupines and so on; was quite unforget
table. One got to the stage when every noise betokened the presence of the king of
the jungle, but the only certain indication was the noise of the actual tearing and
eating of the carcase. Panthers, whose depredations were much more frequent, normally
killed goats, calves and the occasional dog. But they were even more cunning and more
silent in their approach than the tiger. The slightest noise or movement from above,
and they were gone and would not return that night. However, in their case, the
Maharao's permission to shoot was not necessary, and so I had greater success with
them than I had with the tiger. I shot three of them, one in the compound of the
electrical contractor who was erecting thejfirst power station to grace the hill
station.
My wife was expecting our first child at the end of September 1939, and shortly
before this we engaged as a nurse for the baby, a young German girl whose previous
employer had been a married couple in Calcutta. Her name was Gisela Baumgart, and she
had excellent qualifications as a trained nurse in Germany. The fact that we engaged and
were allowed to engage a German girl at this juncture may sound surprising as war had
already broken out between Great Britain and Germany. Our Gisela, though of German
stock, was registered as a citizen of Danzig, at that time an autonomous city under
the administration of the League of Nations. Technically, therefore, she was not an