286 Incidents of Foreign Field Sport. 



My own camp-followers were almost in open mutiny, 

 frightened out of their wits. If the people left, there 

 was no use in my remaining. I had come for sport, 

 not to exorcise evil spirits, but somehow I was most 

 anxious to ascertain the cause of these disappearances. 

 I asked if there were tigers about, and was told a few, 

 but not man-eaters ; besides, they did not climb trees. 

 Were there panthers ? None, as far as they knew. 

 There were no rocks or hills near. About a mile from 

 the small stream which ran past the village, the 

 Nirmul jungle commenced, but in it there were only 

 sambur, neilghye, a few tigers, spotted deer, and 

 further on, gaur. It was not the kind of country to 

 which the smaller felines were partial. I sent off a 

 note to " Verderer " by my orderly, mounting him on 

 a pony of mine, explaining that I was anxious to 

 ascertain the cause of the disappearance of the people, 

 and asking him to wait for me one week or ten days, 

 and packing up my goods too, I accompanied the 

 villagers to their new home, which was about ten 

 miles off. It was a straggling place inhabited by 

 wood-cutters, who gladly welcomed the newcomers, 

 and whilst I pitched my tent at the entrance of the 

 village, the people erected temporary huts for them- 

 selves some little way beyond. In this new village 

 there was an intelligent shikarie. I had a private con- 

 fab with him, and asked him if he could account for 

 the disappearance of the people from the village we 

 had left that morning. He said, from my description, 

 it could only be caused by devils or panthers. " If the 

 latter, depend upon it, Sahib, they will follow the 

 people here, and we had better erect ' marts ' about 

 half a mile off, on the path you followed this morning, 



