SOME BEARS IN SATARA 109 



he crawled first and then stopped and pointed to a 

 black mass about eight yards away and slightly 

 above us. It lay so still I thought it was a log of 

 wood I was looking at, but Nana pointed again at 

 it. It was cloudy and extraordinarily dark under 

 these thick bushes considering the time of day 

 ten o'clock or so. I whispered to know which way 

 his head was, and Nana could not tell. I crawled 

 about and tried to find a clear spot where I could 

 see to shoot through any opening in the bushes. 

 Esuf and Nana held some branches back out of the 

 way as I held my rifle ready ; I thought I had better 

 not waste any more time trying to find out which 

 way the bear was lying and I fancied I saw two green 

 eyes looking at me, but they may have been green 

 leaves. I shot off and the black mass roared, rolled 

 over and then jumped up. I fired again and this 

 time the bear went over for good, though as he 

 tried once or twice to get up I put another bullet 

 in him. 



All the men came pushing their way through the 

 bushes and there was much salaaming. One of 

 the village pat els held my hand to lead me out into 

 the open forcing a way for me through the under- 

 growth which I found was a curious custom of 

 theirs in these parts after any great event. Nana 

 was very angry at this and sent the patel off with a 

 good useful push : he had been the man to show me 

 the bear ; it was his place to lead me out, and he did 

 this with much ceremony. 



The bear was both heavy and fat and the cook 

 boiled down some of the fat and made a fine lot of 



