THE NARBADA VALLEY. 73 



speed. Fast as tlie wolf is (as you will learn if you try 

 to ride him down), I do not believe be is capable of 

 running down an antelope in a fair bunt, tbougb 

 doubtless old or injured animals are thus killed by 

 him. When game is not to be had, the wolf seldom 

 fails to get a meal in the neighbourhood of villages, in 

 the shape of a dog or a goat. They are deadly foes to 

 the former; and will stand outside a village or the 

 traveller's camp at night, and howl until some inex- 

 perienced cur sallies forth to reply, when the lot of that 

 cur will probably be to return no more. Unfortunately, 

 the wolf of Central India does not always confine 

 himself to such substitutes for legitimate game ; and 

 the loss of human life from these hideous brutes has 

 recently been ascertained to be so great that a heavy 

 reward is now offered for their destruction. Though 

 not generally venturing beyond children of ten or 

 twelve years old, yet, when confirmed in the habit of 

 man-eating, they do not hesitate to attack, at an 

 advantage, full-grown women and even adult men. A 

 good many instances occurred, during the construction 

 of the railway through the low jungles north of 

 Jubbulpiir, of labourers on the works being so attacked, 

 and sometimes killed and eaten. The attack was 

 commonly made by a pair of wolves, one of which 

 seized the victim by the neck from behind, preventing 

 outcry, while the other, coming swiftly up, tore out the 

 entrails in front. These confirmed man-eaters are 

 described as having been exceedingly wary, and fully 

 able to discriminate between a helpless victim and an 

 armed man. 



My own experience of wolves does not record an 

 instance of their attacking an adult human being ; but 



