THE HIGHER NAEBADA. 333 



are scarcely inferior to those of the tiger himself ; and 

 are amply sufficient to be the death of any man he gets 

 hold of. When stationed at Damoli, near Jubbulpilr, 

 with a detachment of my regiment, I shot seven panthers 

 and leopards in less than a month, within a few miles of 

 the station, chiefly by driving them out with beaters ; 

 all of them charged who had the power to do so ; but 

 the little cherub who watches over " griffins" got us out 

 of it without damage either to myself or the beaters. 

 One of the smaller species, really not more than five 

 feet long, I believe, charged me three several times up a 

 bank to the very muzzle of my rifle (of which I luckily 

 had a couple), falling back each time to the shot, but not 

 dreaming of trying to escape, and dying at last at my 

 feet with her teeth closed on the root of a small tree. 

 This animal had about six inches of the quill of a porcu- 

 pine broken ofi" in her chest. Another jumped on my 

 horse, when passing through some long grass, before she 

 was fired at at all ; and after being kicked off" charged 

 my groom and gun carrier, who barely escaped by flee- 

 ing for their lives, leaving my only gun in the possession 

 of the leopard. I had to ride to cantonments for another 

 rifle, and to get together some beaters. When we re- 

 turned, I took up my post on a rock which overlooked 

 the patch of grass ; and the beaters had scarcely com- 

 menced their noise before the leopard went at them like 

 an arrow. An accident would certainly have happened 

 this time had my shots failed to stop this devil incarnate 

 before she reached them. She bad cubs in the grass, 

 which accounted for her fury; but a tigress would 

 have abandoned them to their fate in a similar case. 

 The last I killed was a man-eater, which took up his 

 post among the high crops surrounding a village, and 

 killed and dragged in women and children who ventured 



