"However, many of the stories that we heard could not be explained
on these grounds, and the fakir and his doings were often talked
over at mess, some of the officers scoffing at the whole business,
others maintaining that some of these fakirs had, in some way
or another, the power of foretelling the future, citing many well
authenticated anecdotes upon the subject.
"The older officers were the believers, we young fellows were the
scoffers. But for the well known fact that it is very seldom indeed
that these fakirs will utter any of their predictions to Europeans,
some of us would have gone to him to test his powers. As it was,
none of us had ever seen him.
"He lived in an old ruined temple, in the middle of a large patch
of jungle at the foot of the hills, some ten or twelve miles away.
"I had been at Jubbalpore about a year, when I was woke up one
night by a native, who came in to say that at about eight o'clock
a tiger had killed a man in his village, and had dragged off the
body.
"Simmonds and I were constantly out after tigers, and the people
in all the villages within twenty miles knew that we were always
ready to pay for early information. This tiger had been doing great
damage, and had carried off about thirty men, women, and children.
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