REMINISCENCES OF JUNGLYPUR 223 



its bonds and yelling after the yet audible footsteps of his 

 retreating men, gave a start, and rigidified into a silent 

 stare. A fine panther stood there, not five yards away, 

 with his upturned greenish-yellow eyes fixed inquiringly 

 on the machdn. 



Another day we were sitting in a tall burgot tree over 

 a tiger's "kill 1 * during the early afternoon. A panther came 

 unconcernedly down the ndla t heralded by much " tok- 

 tokking" of peafowl, and flung himself down gracefully 

 directly below us. As he was not wanted just then, 

 I amused myself by seeing how far it was possible to go 

 without actually alarming him ; and it was not until several 

 biggish pieces of stick had landed flop on his sleek hide 

 that he had appeared to find it uncanny, and moved off as 

 nonchalant as he had arrived. 



Then again, one evening, on returning to camp in the 

 jungle, my servant told me that a panther had been seen 

 crossing the forest road into a small dell, where a khdkar 

 now barked loudly at intervals. Seizing a kid, and hurry- 

 ing off with it, we had barely time to tie it up and slip 

 behind a bamboo clump, when a dry leaf cracked in the 

 jungle, there came a light spring, a momentary struggle, 

 and the head of the marauder rose over his fallen prey 

 to receive a deadly shot in the neck ! 



It is the easy success of such few opportunities that 

 lures one into making a patient fool of oneself on the 

 many occasions when luck is out, or the panther wary. 



There is one particular ravine near here the Dhar 

 khdra which is a sure trap for any foolish beast that may 

 elect to occupy quarters therein. This deep glen winds up 

 between tremendously steep hillsides to an abrupt cul-de-sac 

 under a five-hundred-foot-high horseshoe-shaped precipice. 

 There is but one way out that by which the entrance was 

 effected. Now and then a bear, panther, or other creature 

 enters this gloomy ravine, to lie up among the bamboos 

 and boulders under the cliffs ; and, if the fact becomes 



