BEATING FOR BEAR IN CHOTA NAGPUR 39 



to ascertain whether the larger caves contained occupants. 

 It must have been an hour after the start when the sharp 

 crack of a rifle to my left broke the stillness. It was not 

 repeated. A little later I happened to glance at T.'s 

 machan and saw him raise his rifle, but he did not fire. 

 Not long afterwards he went through the same motion, 

 but again lowered the rifle. He told me afterwards he 

 had seen a four-horned antelope, but never clear enough 

 to fire at it. 



A loud burst of noise now quite close to the crest above 

 me and quite suddenly a black ball appeared on the sky- 

 line, and without a moment's pause, made down the hill- 

 side, rolling along from rock to rock in an extraordinary 

 manner and at a considerable pace. At first I thought he 

 would come straight for me, but the bear, for it was bruin, 

 changed his direction for a diagonal course and I soon lost 

 him to sight. A shot, followed by a second, showed that he 

 had been seen by one of the machans. Soon afterwards the 

 first of the men appeared on the crest. A storm of yelling 

 on the left followed by a fusillade, a dropping shot or two, 

 and the beat was over. I waited. Dusky, beautifully 

 built men, naked but for a loin-cloth and a huge turban, 

 used as a covering at night, gathered below my machan, 

 talking and laughing like children, going over the incidents 

 of the beat. 



Two blasts of a whistle and I hurriedly climbed down 

 and made for the rendezvous, a solitary, stunted but shady 

 banyan tree situated near Machan No. 4, which time- 

 honoured custom had made the tiffin place. Here the 

 party soon assembled, some rather gloomy at their bad 

 luck, others very excited at their bags. The result arrived 

 at from the excited babel of talk was three bears killed, two 

 supposed wounded, and, according to the native shikaris, 

 three others which had apparently got by unseen. Anyway, 

 ran the verdict, there would be plenty of fun in the after- 

 noon. Whilst this went on the servants brought with us, 

 who had been stowed away in the larger machans, were 

 laying out the lunch. Ice-cold drinks were produced, 

 and most members of the party slaked a thirst that was 

 worth quenching. We gathered round the board — snowy 

 damask tablecloths spread on the ground — in a festive 

 mood. 



The heat did not impair our appetites — not of the younger 



