THE HIGHER NARBADA. 335 



woman was terrified ; but the man said, " Fear not, I 

 possess a charm by which I can transform myself into 

 any shape. I will now become a panther, and remove 

 this obstacle from the road, and on my return you must 

 place this powder in my mouth, when I will recover my 

 proper shape." He then swallowed his own portion of 

 the magic powder, and assuming the likeness of the 

 panther, persuaded him to leave the path. Returning 

 to the woman, he opened his mouth to receive the 

 transposing charm ; but she, terrified by his dreadful 

 appearance and open jaws, dropped it in the mire, and 

 it was lost. Then, in despair, he killed the author of 

 his misfortune, and ever after revenged himself on the 

 race whose form he could never resume. 



The Seoni panther is not a solitary case, several 

 other man-eating panthers having done scarcely less 

 amount of mischief in other parts of the province. 

 Their indifference to water makes it extremely difiicult 

 to bring them to book ; and, indeed, panthers are far 

 more generally met with by accident than secured by 

 regular hunting. When beating with elephants they 

 are very rarely found, considering their numbers ; but 

 they must be frequently passed at a short distance, 

 unobserved, in this kind of hunting. I was hunting for 

 a tigress and cubs near Khapa, on the Lawa river, in 

 Betul ; their tracks of a few days old led into a deep 

 fissure in the rocky banks of the river, above which 

 I went, leaving the elephant below, and threw in stones 

 from the edge. Some vray up I saw a large panther 

 steal out at the head, and sneak across the plain. He 

 was out of shot, and I followed on his tracks, which were 

 clear enough for a few hundred yards, till, at the cross- 

 ing of a small rocky nala, they disappeared. I could 

 not make it out, and was returning to the elephant. 



