310 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA. 



post that the man-eater had again appeared, and had 

 killed a man and a boy on the high road about ten 

 miles from my camp, I could stand it no longer. I 

 had been douching my leg with cold water, but now 

 resorted to stronger measures, giving it a coating of 

 James's horse-blister, which caused of course severe 

 pain for a few days, but at the end of them resulted, 

 to my great delight, in a complete and permanent cure. 

 In the meantime, while I was still raw and sore, I was 

 regaled with stories of the man-eater — of his fearful 

 size and appearance, with belly pendent to the ground, 

 and white moon on the top of his forehead ; his pork- 

 butcher-like method of detaining a party of travellers 

 while he rolled himself in the sand, and at last came up 

 and inspected them all round, selecting the fattest ; his 

 powder of transforming himself into an innocent-looking 

 woodcutter, and calling or whisthng through the woods 

 till an unsuspecting victim approached ; how the 

 spirits of all his victims rode with him on his head, 

 warning him of every danger, and guiding him to the 

 fatal ambush where a traveller would shortly pass. All 

 the best shikaris of the country-side were collected in 

 my camp ; and the landholders and many of the people 

 besieged my tent morning and evening. The infant of 

 a woman who had been carried away while drawing 

 water at a well was brought and held up before me ; 

 and every offer of assistance in destroying the monster 

 was made. No useful help was, however, to be expected 

 from a terror-stricken population like this. They lived in 

 barricaded houses ; and only stirred out when necessity 

 compelled in large bodies, covered by armed men, and 

 beating drums and shouting as they passed along the 

 roads. Many villages had been utterly deserted ; and 

 the country was evidently being slowly depopulated by 



