58 MAN-EATING LEOPARDS. 



dusky that we were only just able to discern the outline of 

 the carcasses, as, with bated breath, we crouched behind our 

 ambush, listening for the slightest sound, and straining our 

 eyes as we tried to pierce the deepening gloom. My heart 

 beat faster and faster each time the light evening zephyrs 

 stirred the loose leaves of some bush in our vicinity, until 

 the feeling of anxious suspense became almost intolerable. 

 We remained listening there, as if spell-bound, for some 

 time after it had grown pitch-dark, expecting each moment 

 to hear the crunching of the bones. At length my trusty 

 old companion, in a whisper, suggested that it might be 

 prudent for us to retire as noiselessly as possible from the 

 ravine, lest the tiger should chance to prefer live to dead 

 meat for his supper. Next morning we were again much 

 astonished at finding our bait untouched. The wary brute 

 must have got wind of us in some manner when he had 

 approached so near, for no sign was either seen or heard of 

 him about the dead cattle after that night. 



Man-eating tigers are not uncommon in the Himalayas, 

 but one seldom hears of man-eating leopards, although they 

 are common enough in Central India. A hill leopard, when 

 it does take to that sort of thing, is generally a very devil 

 at it. A brute of this kind infested the Shore valley 

 during part of the time I was there. It had killed some 

 seven or eight people, and was so crafty that it baffled 

 all attempts to destroy it. In one instance it was bold 

 enough to carry off a little girl from the hut in which she 

 was sleeping. Her people were so anxious to avenge her 

 death and to rid themselves of this pest, that they came to 

 the outpost and reported their having actually left the par- 

 tially eaten corpse at the spot where the leopard had dragged 

 it to, in the hope of the brute's destruction by a shot on 

 its return to its victim. I was absent from Shore at the 

 time, but a sportsman who happened to be there went and 

 watched over the body, to which, as was the custom of this 

 cruel and cunning brute, it never returned. Man-eating 



