Gaur Shooting. 143 



arm, pointed half-way up the hill side. Looking in 

 that direction, I saw a splendid old bull. His horns 

 were somewhat worn at the tips, but still long and 

 massive. He stood side on, but looking at us, or at 

 his old acquaintance who had betrayed him. The 

 shot was an easy one. As I fired, the bull rolled over 

 and over. The old native ran forward for what 

 purpose it is impossible to say for he was a Hindoo 

 to whom the animal and all its kind are sacred, and 

 he would have died rather than have touched it. 

 But familiarity, it is said, breeds contempt. The old 

 fellow had seen these animals probably for over sixty 

 years ; he had never hurt them or they him, and it 

 could only have been mere bravado on his part, but 

 whether or no, it cost him dear, for as the bull reached 

 the bed of the watercourse, he sprang up and the 

 old man was only a pace from him, when, lowering his 

 head with a bellow which I have scarcely got out of 

 my ears even to this day, so horrible did it sound, he 

 rushed at the woodcutter and ran past us with the 

 man apparently impaled on his horns. I dropped the 

 bull in his tracks stone dead, but our ancient guide 

 was dead too. The horn had not penetrated the 

 victim it was too blunt in fact to do that but the 

 blow must have struck just over the heart. The 

 loin cloth had become entangled on the horns, and thus 

 the man was carried past as described. We bore the 

 body to my camp, sent word to Lingum Eeddy, the 

 head man, but no one claimed relationship with the 

 defunct, so my people prepared a pyre and cremated 

 the body. The head of the gaur when brought in 

 was minus half an ear, and the ridges at the base of 

 the horn just numbered thirty- two, and if the native 



