THE TOMB OF HIS ANCESTORS
field, till young Chinn hinted that they must be pulling his leg.
"'Deed, we are n't," said a man on his left. "We know all about you. You 're a Chinn and all that, and you 've a sort of vested right here; but if you don't believe what we 're telling you, what will you do when old Bukta begins his stories? He knows about ghost-tigers, and tigers that go to a hell of their own; and tigers that walk on their hind feet; and your grand-papa's riding-tiger, as well. 'Odd he has n't spoken of that yet."
"You know you 've an ancestor buried down Satpura way, don't you?" said the Major, as Chinn smiled irresolutely.
"Of course I do," said Chinn, who had the chronicle of the Book of Chinn by heart. It lies in a worn old ledger on the Chinese lacquer table behind the piano in the Devonshire home, and the children are allowed to look at it on Sundays.
"Well, I was n't sure. Your revered ancestor, my boy, according to the Bhils, has a tiger of his own—a saddle-tiger that he rides round the country whenever he feels inclined. I don't call it decent in an ex-Collector's ghost; but that is what the Southern Bhils believe. Even our men, who might be called moderately cool, don't care to beat that country if they hear that Jan Chinn is running about on his tiger. It is supposed to be a clouded animal—not stripy, but blotchy, like a tortoise-shell tom-cat. No end of a brute, it is, and a sure sign of war or pestilence or—or something. There 's a nice family legend for you."
[120]
