PAXTIIER-SPEA RUG. 239 



We left this brute to see a quail fight— rather a contrast. 

 Then there was a fight between two partridges, and finally 

 all the young elephants were let loose, and ran about the 

 yard playing with their keepers. There is an enormous 

 carriage here, said to be unique. It is in two stories, holds 

 fifty people, and requires four elephants to draw it. 



On our way back we went to look at a large panther 

 trapped last night. It was growling in a corner, and tearing 

 to shreds a cloth it had plucked from some native who had 

 approached too near. As we came up, it sprang at the bars 

 of the cage, and tried its utmost to break through. A few- 

 days back this brute killed a poor girl in one of the hill 

 villages. This afternoon it is to lie turned loose on the plain, 

 and try its courage against horsemen armed witli spears. 



They say when tackled the panther has not the pluck of 

 a wild boar, but Mrs. Fraser dislikes the idea of her husband 

 and Alan riding. She considers it a dangerous amusement, 

 giving so treacherous a beast a fairer chance than it deserves. 



After luncheon we went to a large open plain outside the 

 city. A crowd of natives, walking, driving, and riding, were 

 waiting to see the sport. Mrs. Fraser, Jey Singh, and I, 

 were on an elephant. Colonel Fraser, Alan, Yar Singh (the 

 .Master of the Horse), and a sowar, rode with spears. The 

 manager of the shikar, or head gamekeeper, is a venerable- 

 looking old man, named Hermiron Singh. Dressed in a lonr>- 

 greycoat, a scanty pugaree coiled like a rope round his head. 



