MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 275 



with half a dozen skins on their heads going 1" some village or town to <h-pose 

 of them. I believe a license is necessary both for carrying a gun and also to 



kill sambhur, but the law seems to be very little in force in these parts, and 

 consequently the game suffe mendous extent. I have frequently heard 



five of sis shots tired 'luring the night within i mile or two of my camp. 

 Immediately after Keralli had fired, the panthers separated and returned to 

 the jungles by th< paths by which they had ft] led the nullah, and 



Keralli thinking he had done enough, and that discretion was the better part 

 of valour, especially as it was getting dark. baok to me. Not under- 



standing Cingalese, the foregoing was inter] ireted tome by my servant, and 

 Keralli, going through a pantomime while relating his adventures, made 

 me grasp the state of affairs better than I should otherwise have done. 

 At daylight next morning, there being no fresh tracks of elephants about, I 

 decided to go and look up the wounded panther, as Keralli declared he was 

 certain that he had wounded it. On coming to the nullah there were the marks 

 of the scuffle shown quite plainly, and also the pug to and from the jungle. We 

 then took up the tracts of the wounded panther, and a short distance up the 

 bank came on blood. The jungle here was fairly open as regards trees, but 

 the whole ground was covered with nillao about 3 feet high. " NiHao" is 

 a sort of weed with a straight stem, and grows to a height of six or eight feet 

 close together. It then dies, and it is very difficult to force one's way 

 through it. It is said to flower once in seven years, when all the bees and 

 jungle-fowl for nrdes round flock to it. We continued the tracking along the 

 path through the nillao for about thirty yards when we came on a pool of blood 

 and found pugs of the larger panther about — the two had evidently had 

 another scuffle — and then continued together along the path for about twenty 

 yards, where I came on the panther dead and a considerable portion of the 

 hind quarters eaten. I examined it carefully without allowing it to be 

 touched. It was a full-grown female panther in very poor condition ; 

 the carcase was quite fresh, and the other panther could have only left a vcrv 

 short time before we arrived. I left one of my men to put up a machan in a 

 tree close by, and gave strict orders that the body was not to be touched, as 1 

 intended to sit up over it that evening, and then left with Keralli to see if we 

 coidd find any elephant tracks. I may state that we looked carefully over the 

 ground around the kill and could find no pugs of either jackal, pig or 

 any other animals, except the two panthers, the pugs of which were quite 

 distinct and very different in size. I got back to camp about 4 p.m. havino- 

 come across no fresh tracks of elephants, and found the man I had left behind 

 to build the machan awaiting me. He said that, having cut some sticks, he came 

 back and found the dead panther had been dragged about fifteen yards furthei 

 into the nillao, and thata large panther was standing over it, which slunk away 

 on his approach. He then built the machan in a (ice close by, and everyth 

 was ready. I had some food, and then started "'it with Eeralli and a couph 



