LEECHES. 15 



man is a successful shikaree, his luck is attributed to his 

 practising some magic charm. They also have an idea that 

 the wild animals are sometimes protected from harm by the 

 deity of the mountain, for every prominent hill or accessible 

 peak, where the people of the country are of the Hindoo 

 persuasion, has its rudely-built little temple, or cairn of 

 stones, dedicated to the particular "deota," as they call it, 

 which is supposed to preside there. 



Having sent off my men to their recruiting beats along the 

 Nepal frontier, there was little to be done in the way of 

 military duty until their return, which might not be perhaps 

 for months. Neither was there much to do in the shikar line 

 before September ; for the rainy season had now fairly set in, 

 and its heavy showers were almost incessant. Moreover, the 

 steamy heat not only made hill work unpleasant and toilsome, 

 but also unhealthy, and caused rank vegetation to spring up 

 with astonishing rapidity, rendering it almost impossible to 

 find game. Leeches, too, at that season are very abundant in 

 the Kumaon hills. These little wretches will penetrate to 

 one's feet and ankles through almost anything. On taking 

 off tightly -laced boots after a walk, even along beaten paths, 

 I generally found that one or two had managed to reach my 

 skin. Besides, it was what ought to be the close season for 

 game, although, I regret to say, in India this is not always 

 considered. In September, however, black bears might be 

 expected to come down from the neighbouring wooded hills 

 into the valley, there to make their nightly raids on the Indian 

 corn and other crops which would then be ripening. 



The Himalayan black bear, called bdloo or reech by the 

 natives, is common everywhere on the middle and lower 

 ranges. Why it is termed Ursus Tibetanus in natural history 

 I never could quite comprehend, as it is distinctly a forest- 

 loving beast, and most unlikely to be found on the bare table- 

 lands of Tibet, where it is never heard of. 



It was early in the month of September when one morning 



