140 Leaves from an Indian Jungle. 



without actually alarming him ; and it was not until several 

 biggish pieces of stick had landed flop on his sleek hide 

 that he had appeared to find it uncanny, and moved off as 

 nonchalant as he had arrived. 



Then again, one evening, on returning to camp in the 

 jungle, my servant told me that a panther had been seen 

 crossing the forest road into a small dell, where a barking 

 deer now yapped loudly at intervals. Seizing a kid, and 

 hurrying off with it, we had barely time to tie it up and 

 slip behind a bamboo clump when a dry leaf cracked in the 

 jungle, there came a light spring, a momentary struggle, 

 and the head of the marauder rose over his fallen prey to 

 receive a deadly shot in the neck ! 



It is the easy success of such few opportunities that lures 

 one into making a patient fool of oneself on the many 

 occasions when luck is out, or the panther wary. 



There is one particular ravine near here the Dhdr 

 khbra which is a sure trap for any foolish beast that may 

 elect to occupy quarters therein. This deep glen winds up 

 between tremendously steep hillsides to an abrupt cul-de-sac 

 under a five hundred foot high horseshoe-shaped precipice. 

 There is but one way out that by which the entrance was 

 effected. Now and then a bear, panther, or other creature 

 enters this gloomy ravine, to lie up among the bamboos and 

 boulders under the cliffs ; and, if the fact becomes known, 

 it is not very long ere a grinning Korku appears at the 

 sahib's quarters with the news. 



A large and very cunning panther had been creating hav- 

 oc with the cattle which are-herded during the rains in the 

 Barhanpur valley, of which the Dhar khbra is an offset. 

 He would prowl nightly round the zariba in which the cattle 

 were pounded, and, after very long and cautious reconnais- 

 sance, about the deathly hour of two in the morning, would 



