In tht Sal Forests. 221 



inanimate objects when wounded, the majority seem to 

 have acted similarly to those of which we ourselves had 

 experience, showing the greatest anxiety to escape their 

 puny antagonist and remove their enormous frames from his 

 Lilliputian attack. However, some years ago, a sportsman 

 met his death, in those very jungles, from the horns of a 

 bull that he had wounded. The story runs that he had 

 gone out one morning on the tracks of a big bull which he 

 had hit the previous evening. He was armed with a heavy 

 black-powder rifle probably an 8-bore and coming on 

 the bull lying down in an open glade, he approached peril- 

 ously near, in order to finish it off ; and was charged. The 

 bull is said to have chased him to a tree, round which the 

 unfortunate man dodged, and on each side of which he 

 then seized his pursuer's spreading horns. In such 

 unequal strife the Bubalus and his opponent did not struggle 

 long. The sportsman was tossed easily aside, and then 

 terribly gored, one great horn completely penetrating his 

 body. When the bull left him his retainers rushed up, 

 but their master was beyond all aid. He ejaculated the one 

 word " Water ! " and was dead before their eyes. 



Such calamities shock the keen shikari, and a narrow 

 escape may teach him greater caution ; but it is rare that 

 these deter him from again embarking on his engrossing 

 pursuit. 



The jungle again exercises its compelling fascination ; 

 the mind's eye pictures its delights ; the rifle old friend 

 emerges from its case, caressed once more of fond hands ; 

 Time, healer of scars, physical and mental, does his appoint- 

 ed work ; and Nature leads the wanderer once more to her 

 beloved solitudes. At first the hunter returned may start 

 and handle his weapon sharply at a rustle in the bushes ; a 

 sudden clamour, or, more still, the harsh voice of a wild 



