26 FABLES ABOUT BRUIN. 



our former position, and then return and show you where I 

 have buried my riches.' That night the old woman arose from 

 beside my grandfather and went into the jungles, and as she 

 has never since been heard of, she must still be amassing 

 riches in the form of a tiger ; therefore, if I eat the flesh of 

 one, I may be devouring a bit of my grandmother." 



Most probably the old woman did enter the form of a tiger 

 that night, but as its supper. Anyway the old Gond did not 

 seem to mind killing his grandmother, though he objected to 

 eating her, for he said he liked slaying tigers, because the 

 more of them he destroyed, the better chance there would 

 be of one of them being his ancestress, who might then assume 

 her original form, and return with her riches. 



Fables innumerable about bears are common among the 

 pahdrees (hill-men), and they are often amusing from their 

 utter absurdity. The occasional abduction of women from 

 the villages by bears is firmly believed in, as is also their 

 being able to use a branch of a tree held between their paws 

 as an offensive weapon, and suchlike nonsense. 



Before concluding this matter-of-fact dissertation on black 

 bear shooting, I would venture to offer the young hand a hint 

 which may save him the loss of many a wounded bear ; for 

 Bruin's vitality is such, that unless he is struck in the proper 

 place, the amount of lead he can carry away is astonishing. 

 A bear, after being skinned and decapitated, looks very like 

 a corpulent man with short muscular limbs, and its vitals lie 

 in much the same region, with regard to its shoulders, as 

 those of a human being. It is flat -chested, and its fore- 

 quarters are straight and placed far forward, so it is necessary 

 to plant your bullet a good span behind the shoulder, and 

 pretty high up. This, of course, only applies when there is 

 time for a deliberate aim and a good position for taking it 

 from. These can generally be got if the animal is not ap- 

 proached from windward, for Bruin is as dull with his visual 

 organ as he is sharp with his olfactory one. I have lost many 



