68 AFTER A FELINE DEMON. 



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 tigers and 

 leopards are often pale and dingy in colour, and mangy in 

 appearance. This, however, is not due, as is commonly sup- 

 posed, to their diet of human flesh, but to age. These pests 

 are usually old and more or less infirm animals, which, find- 

 ing human victims easier to obtain than more active and 

 wary ones in the shape of deer or cattle, consequently take 

 to habitually preying upon them. 



On one occasion, during my sojourn in Kumaon, I had an 

 exciting hunt after a perfect feline demon. I was on a visit 

 at Almora, the capital town of the province, when a report 

 was brought in that a leopard had temporarily established 

 itself in some terraced rice-fields near a village about half a 

 mile off. It had that morning given a forcible proof of 

 its unwelcome presence there by maliciously attacking a 

 woman who was at work in a field close below the village. 

 Two or three sporting members of the small European com- 

 munity of the place were soon on the scene of action, and, 

 having collected a number of willing men from the village, 

 at once commenced beating up the enemy's quarters. We 

 had not proceeded far when several hoarse grunts, followed 

 by the piercing screams of a woman, apprised us of the brute's 

 whereabouts. It was standing on the edge of one of the ter- 

 raced rice-fields, lashing its tail from side to side and looking 

 back defiantly towards us, and in the field immediately below 

 lay the victim it had just seized and left. The beast was 

 rather far out for the borrowed smooth-bore I was armed 

 with, and fearing lest I might injure the woman I aimed 

 rather high. At any rate the shot had the effect of scaring 

 the leopard away from her vicinity, for it at once decamped. 



