60 Leaves from an Indian Jungle. 



Almost exactly one year subsequent to the above events, 

 I was again informed of a human *' kill " near the ill-fated 

 Belkhe"ra. 



This time the victim was an old woman. She had been 

 seized half-way up the main glen, near a place named " Bera 

 Pani." Be"ra Pani was a kind of rendezous for grass- 

 cutters, where they collected their grass bundles to be 

 carted down to the village. 



This poor old lady had come up the valley with a party of 

 Korkus, who had scattered in search of grass. Her son, a 

 child of ten or so, was with her. Son and mother separated 

 during their work. At mid-day the hoy heard the sound of a 

 fall, and a kind of gurgle, but thought it was his mother 

 throwing down a heavy bundle of grass and then clearing 

 her throat. There were grasscutters all over the hillsides, 

 who called out to each other occasionally, and from the 

 ravine hard by, down at Bera Pani, came the cheerful tin- 

 kling of bells as the bullocks stood grazing near the carts. 



In the late afternoon the boy carried his load of grass to 

 the carts, but his mother did not appear. Becoming anxious 

 after a while, he went up-hill again in search of her, and 

 came on her grass bundles, then on her sickle. Further on 

 he saw blood-smears on the grass stems, which so terrified 

 him that he bolted like a deer back to the B6ra Pani, scream- 

 ing, " Tiger ! tiger ! ! " 



In a moment the cry had spread to the grasscutters yet 

 on the hill, who rushed huddling together, and were shortly 

 afterwards chattering and gesticulating round the mother- 

 less boy. After a while half-a-dozen men banded together, 

 and, armed with sticks and hatchets, followed the tracks of 

 the kill and drag, shouting and beating trees up a side 

 nala. First they came on the woman's sari, then on the 

 body itself one leg eaten. The panther was slinking off 



