u6 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR 



All this happened in brilliant sunshine and I was 

 back in the bungalow by five o'clock. On the way 

 home a large langur monkey saw the panther, his 

 natural enemy, being carried along underneath the tree 

 in which he was sitting. He got very much excited 

 and angry and began to chatter and swear at him, 

 and he kept pace with the procession, in which a lot 

 of other monkeys joined; they came along swinging 

 themselves overhead from tree to tree for quite 

 half a mile, using violent language all the way 

 home. 



The second occasion was when on the way to 

 church one Sunday morning the church servant met 

 me with beaming smiles. He said that a calf, 

 belonging to the baker, had been killed and dragged 

 through the church compound and over a little wall, 

 under which he now lay. He had the first news of it, 

 so it was clearly our panther. I went to see, and a 

 small half-eaten calf lay, as he said, just under the 

 wall that divided the church compound from that 

 of a bungalow. Servants 1 houses were within a 

 few yards of the spot, and I went to ask leave from 

 the owner of the bungalow to put up my machan 

 in one of her trees. She allowed me to do it, but said 

 it was no use going to sit up till ten o'clock as the 

 servants would be going backwards and forwards 

 bringing dinner, and continually passing with lights, 

 besides there being a glow from the cook-house fire. 

 I went in the evening to see if the machan was put 

 up properly, and arranged and lighted a shaded 

 lantern exactly over the kill. Two men were set 

 to watch if the panther came, and keep him off 



