314 Wild Beasts 



bulpiir, of laborers on the works being so attacked, and 

 sometimes killed and eaten. The assault was commonly 

 made by a pair of wolves, one of whom seized the victim 

 by the neck from behind, preventing outcry, while the 

 other, coming swiftly up, tore out the entrails in front. 

 These confirmed man-eaters arc described as having been 

 exceedingly wary, and fully able to discriminate between a 

 helpless victim and an armed man. 



"In 1 86 1, I was marching through a small village on 

 the borders of the Damoh district, and accidentally heard 

 that for months past a pair of wolves had carried off a 

 child from the centre of the village, in broad daylight. 

 No attempt whatever had been made to kill them, though 

 their haunts were perfectly well known, and lay not a 

 quarter of a mile from the town. A shapeless stone, rep- 

 resenting the goddess Devi, under a neighboring tree, had 

 been daubed with vermilion instead, and liberally propi- 

 tiated with cocoanuts and rice. Their plan of attack was 

 uniform and simple. The village stood on the slope of 

 a hill, at the foot of which was the bed of a stream 

 thickly fringed with grass and bushes. The main street, 

 where children were always at play, ran down the slope of 

 this hill, and while one of the wolves, that one which was 

 smaller than the other, concealed itself among some low 

 bushes between the village and the bottom of the declivity, 

 the other would go round to the top, and, watching for an 

 opportunity, would race down through the street, picking 

 up a child by the way, and make off with it to the thick 

 cover in the nala. At first the people used to pursue, and 

 sometimes made the marauder drop his prey ; but finding, 



