18 ACCIDENT TO A FALCONER. 



crushing folds many of their cattle had perished. 

 They now placed the dead snake on a cart and 

 carried it in triumph to their village, where it 

 was skinned and the carcass hung upon a tree, 

 its fat being previously removed for medicinal 

 purposes, the natives believing it to be a sove- 

 reign remedy for impotence and other com- 

 plaints incidental to them. The unfortunate dog 

 was found completely crushed, and near it a dead 

 deer in the same state, on the spot where Captain 

 Croker had discovered the monster coiled. 



One morning a falconer fell with his pony 

 into a small well ; fortunately the depth was not 

 great, and the man was extricated with little 

 injury by means of turbans knotted together, 

 by which he was hauled up ; but whether the 

 steed was ever got out or not I cannot say. I 

 wonder. Indeed, that such accidents do not more 

 frequently occur in India, where pot-wells are 

 in all directions to be met with. I once, when 

 hunting in the Nagporc country, had a narrow 

 escape. We were running a jackal through 

 some melon gardens, when I came full speed on 

 one of these wells, so close before my horse that 

 it was ImjDossible to avoid it ; so I crammed him 

 at it, and he carried me over in gallant style, 



