136 RIFLE AND ROMANCE 



explosion from some treetop. It is therefore not surprising 

 to find that, where their numbers are nearly equal, the 

 spotted cat is a greater connoisseur of human flesh than is 

 his striped congener. 



During the time that I was a resident of Junglypur 

 there was usually one man-eater at least at his fell work in 

 the Melghat and surrounding hilly districts, and he was 

 pretty certain to be a panther. A favourite ground for 

 these operations was the low, hilly country bordering the 

 Tapti river, whence the attack would be conducted, and 

 toll taken in the small Korku villages situated on the rich 

 and cultivated strips of alluvial land on its banks. One 

 such man-killer was credited with a bag of twenty-seven 

 victims, including a misguided native shikari, who sat 

 up for him in a tree, but was, in his turn, cleverly stalked. 

 All that his friends found of this unfortunate were the 

 soles of his feet and a coil of blood-stained hair. At last 

 this dreaded marauder was shot by a plucky little Kor- 

 kuni as it was dragging her husband out of his hut in a 

 field at night. 



In the neighbourhood of a hill village named Asalwara, 

 not far from the old fort of Narnala, another man-eating 

 panther made his appearance ; and after eight grass- 

 cutters members of a gang who had come up from the 

 plains to ply their trade had been mysteriously made 

 away with, he was wounded by a brother-officer of mine 

 and disappeared. From this it was concluded that he 

 had died of his wound. However, the man-killing began 

 not long afterwards on the banks of the Tapti once 

 more. 



From my own observations I have formed a theory that, 

 unlike the tiger, who once a man-eater is often always 

 a man-eater, the panther, with his superior cunning, is not 

 so incautious as to enter on such a career in too exclusive 

 a manner. He probably exercises the greatest circumspec- 

 tion in choosing his human victims, only taking advantage 



