128 RIFLE AND SPEAR WITH THE RAJPOOTS. 



the fun. By the time we arrived a big crowd had collected. 

 Hundreds of picturesquely dressed natives were sitting and 

 standing about on all sides ; the children, like London street 

 boys, perched on walls and trees to get a glimpse of the show. 

 The leopard was enclosed in the cage in which he had been 

 caught : a kind of gigantic mousetrap. The Maharaja, 

 Bhurie Siugh, and a couple of officials stood with us, about 

 a couple of hundred yards away from the cage, and a man 

 scpiatted just behind held the end of a long rope, a jjull 

 from which was to enlarge the cpiarry. This is, I supj^ose, 

 the Chamba form of pigeon shooting. But it decidedly has 

 a spice of danger which the poor defenceless Hurlingham 

 pigeon does not afford. The Maharaja handed me a rifle, 

 and begged that I would take the first shot, It was a 

 nervous moment for an inexperienced markswoman before so 

 many spectators, but he would not hear of a refusal. The 

 cord was pulled and the leopard bounded out, then crouched 

 seemingly level with the ground, and glared round, gnashing 

 his teeth and lashing his tail, evidently hesitating which 

 direction to take. I fired, and they all politely declared he 

 was hit, but with a roar he slouched away towards the hill, 

 while the spectators in his vicinity took to their heels and 

 fled right and left. The Maharaja, Bhurie Singh, and Alan 

 shot in quick succession, and the leopard rolled over motion- 

 less. Some shikaris with their dogs now ran towards him, 

 but he never moved, and on going up we found he was quite 



