chap. x. FIGHT BETWEEN A MOORMAN AND BEAR. 241 



far from enviable, as he left portions of his entrails all 

 along his track. V. had killed his bear ; he weighed 

 about two hundred pounds, and measured fourteen 

 inches round the arm, without his hide. 



The Ceylon bear is a most savage animal, con- 

 stantly attacking men without the slightest provoca- 

 tion. I have seen many natives frightfully disfigured 

 by the attacks of bears, which they dread more than 

 any other animal. Nothing would induce my trackers 

 to follow up the wounded beast. I followed him as far 

 as I could, but my useless limb soon gave way, and I 

 was obliged to give him up. I once saw a Moorman, 

 who was a fine powerful fellow and an excellent 

 elephant-tracker, who had a narrow escape from a 

 bear. He was cutting bamboos with a catty or kind 

 of bill-hook, when one of these animals descended 

 from a tree just above him and immediately attacked 

 him. The man instinctively threw his left arm for- 

 ward to receive the bear, who seized it in his mouth 

 and bit the thumb completely off, lacerating the arm 

 and wrist at the same time in a frightful manner. 

 With one blow of the bill-hook the Moorman cleft the 

 bear's skull to the teeth, at the same time gashing his 

 own arm to the bone by the force of the blow ; and 

 he never afterwards recovered the proper use of the 

 limb. 



The Ceylon bear feeds upon almost anything that 

 offers ; he eats honey, ants, fruit, roots, and flesh when- 



