"Finest Liar in India"
ERE is yet another Messmate o’ Mine. He held the exalted rank of Colonel. He was then known throughout the Army as the finest liar in all India. He had told his tall stories so often that I’m quite certain that he actually believed them to be true, Baron Munchausen was a mere novice compared with our Commanding Officer. He had a story for every occasion. Here is an example of what I mean. We were talking about tiger shooting one day, and
he chipped in with this remarkable story. After telling us that he had been out in the jungle with his trusty Winchester repeating rifle for a fortnight without seeing or smelling a tiger, he sadly decided to go home. Walking slowly up a small hill, he suddenly saw the head of a tiger peeping over the top of the rise. He raised his rifle and fired. When the smoke had
cleared away, he saw the brute still there. Again he fired-the smoke cleared and the tiger was still there. Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!-five more shots, and this time as the smoke disappeared, he saw the animal fall dead, After a moment or two, he went to the top of the rise only to discover that he had killed 53 feet of tiger, or in other wordsa@ complete family, Pa, Ma and five cubs. These apparently had been following each other in single file, and as one was killed, another fresh one took its' place. None of them decided to run away-no! those tigers were built of sterner stuff, And we poor juniors daren’t even laugh at his hair-raising yarns! ("Just Messmates o’ Mine.’ Major F. H. Lampen, 2YA, November 13).
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 5, Issue 127, 28 November 1941, Page 5
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288"Finest Liar in India" New Zealand Listener, Volume 5, Issue 127, 28 November 1941, Page 5
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