ANOTHER PANTHER. 343 



matted tliickets of creepers and a peculiar evergreen biisli, the foliage of 

 which bent to, and touched, the ground on all sides, making a thick screen 

 that prevented a view into the interior without parting it with the band. 

 These bushes are favourite retreats of panthers, pig, &c. The Torreas said 

 the panther in question almost invariably lived in this cover, but that if 

 disturbed he would betake himself to a place called Kul Bhavi, or the stone 

 well, where there were a few similar thickets. This was a cover in one of 

 the tributary ravines, about three-quarters of a mile from the large cover. 

 Should he be dislodged from this, he would either, they said, make back 

 to the big cover, or endeavour to reach a small rocky hill a mile further on, 

 where he had a cave. He ordinarily only used the latter as a den on occa- 

 sions during the wet months, when mosquitoes are very troublesome in 

 close green tliickets. We found his tracks, those of a very large male, 

 almost like a small tigress, in the sandy bed of the main ravine which ran 

 tlirough the cover. Down it we crept silently in Indian file, that I might 

 gain an idea of the nature and extent of the panther's haunts. 



We decided to try and drive him out of the main thicket towards the 

 Kul Bhavi, or smaller one. I was to be stationed at the point where he would 

 most lilvcly emerge from the large cover ; and such nets as we had were to 

 be stretched across his line of escape, some distance out in the open ground 

 beyond where I stood. We hoped that if he got past me this obstacle would 

 delay him, and afford me the chance of a second shot. The prominent points 

 for a mile round were to be occupied by markers, to avoid the chance of our 

 losing a second panther by the want of foresight that had cost us our last. 

 I saw, however, that to drive so large a cover effectively, a greater number of 

 men was required than the Torreas of Cliuttra, so I proposed to them to 

 invite the villagers of Eamanliully to join them. There is much jealousy 

 among the various Torrea communities, who have the country apportioned 

 into hunting-tracts for each village, and I had some difficulty in getting 

 tliem to fall into my views with cordiality. But the eloquence of Jaffer — 

 who explained to them that the Eamanliully Torreas, being strangers to the 

 ground, would only be required as stops, and for duties of quite a secondary 

 nature, and would have little of the honour and few of the rupees to be 

 obtained in the event of the death of the pauther — at last prevailed, and two 

 of the headmen proceeded to Painianhully to give their kinsmen an invitation 

 for the hunt. Jaffer declared himself ready to go with them ; and I have 

 no doubt he represented to the private ear of the Eamanliully people that 

 they were the men to show his " Sahib " sport, as they had already done, 

 and that the assistance of the Chutfera Torreas was merely called in as a 

 matter of etiquette, the cover lying in their boundaries. Jaffer plumed 



