KURUKWAHI 203 



The men came noisily along to the end of the hill-top 

 where it sloped steeply down to my tree. To judge 

 by a roar I heard, they had put up a bear. There 

 was great shouting and much talking for some 

 minutes, then complete silence and the beat stopped. 

 I thought that some one must have been attacked or 

 hurt. 



After a long delay two coolies came up to say 

 that they had seen three bears; one had gone on, 

 one had disappeared and they did not know where he 

 had gone, and the third was hiding among some 

 rocks, and I was to go up with them to try and get 

 a shot. We went up the steep hill, near the top of 

 which were a lot of great boulders, awkward places 

 to climb without noise. Abdulla was waiting and 

 watching the entrance to a cave, and whispered that 

 the bear was in it ; we were close to it and stealthily 

 advanced the last few yards. The mouth of the cave 

 opened downwards and I peeped in and could just 

 distinguish a black mass in the darkness below. 

 I shot into the middle of it ; there was a grunt, and 

 what with dust and smoke and the echoing of the 

 shot I could see or hear nothing more for a time, but 

 stood at the ready if the bear should come out. 

 When I could see I fired again and saw it was dead. 



Then arose a great clamour and two poor cubs 

 that I had not seen set up a tremendous yelling. I 

 was starting to climb down and catch them, but 

 Abdulla said they were too big for that, and would 

 bite, so we climbed round the big rock to try and find 

 another way in. As we went along Abdulla silently 

 pointed out the paw of a bear in another low cave. 



