58 WILD LIFE IN NORTH CANARA. 



bear hugged the tree, until at last the 

 bear was killed, and the runner got 

 the Government reward." 



During one rainy season, when the 

 weather at Belikeri had been unusually 

 stormy, I happened to enter, in search 

 of something, the bath-room attached to 

 a room not then in use. It was getting 

 dark, and I had a candle with me ; just 

 as I was leaving the bath-room, a pile 

 of stones in one corner of the bathing 

 place caught my eye, and I turned to 

 look at it. As I held the candle to- 

 wards it, the seeming pile of stones 

 resolved itself into the spotted coils of 

 a python, which lay there, coil over coil, 

 with its head resting on the topmost 

 coil, and the bright eyes watching my 

 movements. 



