166 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR 



interested spectator. The panther dragged himself 

 away along the road, and at the same time the whole 

 crowd of villagers rushed out to see what had hap- 

 pened, and I fired one or two more shots quickly, 

 for fear he should do them some harm. They 

 seemed to be less afraid of a wounded panther than 

 a sound one ! but they were delighted that the tendwa 

 was killed. 



The goat trotted down with me to the tent and I 

 bathed its throat wounds with disinfectants, which 

 it bore very well. In the morning the throat was 

 rather swollen, but it nibbled some leaves. A little 

 travelling shop came round, in a cart, and I bought 

 some oil, Tilli oil, which Govind said was made from 

 monkey nuts, and gave it a dose, and saw to the 

 wounds. The following day the goat was much better, 

 drank a good deal of water and was quite hungry 

 for the leaves it was given, and it recovered. The 

 men looked on in amazement at all this. They said 

 to me, " The sahib ties up a goat as a bait for the 

 tendwa, to be killed, and hopes it will be killed, and 

 then takes all this trouble to save its life. We have 

 talked about it and cannot understand. We have 

 come to ask why the sahib does this." And I could 

 not tell them. I allowed that it was most extra- 

 ordinary, and the two things were incompatible; 

 but I did it, and it was more than I could explain 

 to myself. 



The goat had escaped twice, once in the hut, and 

 once from the jaws of the panther, so I sent for the 

 man who had owned it. I gave him a little medicine 

 for it, and some baksheesh, and the goat trotted off 



