The Man-eater of Belkhera. 55 



smothered lands ; roads have opened up the erstwhile 

 impenetrable depths of the " Melghat," as the hilly forest 

 region lying within the Satpura range is called ; improve- 

 ments in firearms have thrown a large quantity of muzzle- 

 loading muskets in the way of the natives of those tracts ; 

 and game has greatly diminished in numbers. 



However, when I was quartered at this queer, little, old- 

 fashioned station, some years ago, there was still a fair 

 amount of shikar to be had if one cared to work pretty 

 hard for it, and had sufficient patience to put up with a 

 somewhat disheartening proportion of blank days. In this 

 connection I refer to " big game:" antelope, chinkdra, and 

 such smaller game were really plentiful, and not difficult to 

 get at. 



I will however pass over a. description of the sport ob- 

 tainable in the vicinity of little Junglypur, confining myself 

 to the story of the Belkhera man-eater, a recital of whose 

 misdeeds and bold ferocity may prove more interesting. 



It is an accepted fact that a large number of man-eaters 

 in Central India and the Deccan are panthers. No man 

 who has even a short experience of panthers and tigers will 

 deny that the former animal is the more dangerous of 

 the two. The tiger is, as a rule, a gentleman. The pan- 

 ther, on the other hand, is a bounder. The tiger is not infre- 

 quently a blunderer ; but Felis pardus knows exactly how to 

 combine the two attributes of dashing pluck and almost 

 unerring discretion, which are his by inheritance. 



The panther moreover his habits leading him to the 

 vicinity of villages is much more familiar with man, and in 

 consequence holds him in greater contempt than does the 

 tiger, whose acquaintance with the biped is generally confined 

 to a yelling band of demons and a terrifying explosion from 

 some tree-top. It is therefore not surprising to find that, 



