160 Wild Beasts 



truder too closely. A shadowy form bounds upon it, and 

 all is over. 



If panthers were contented to kill these animals only, 

 no reasonable objection to their deeds could be made. Un- 

 fortunately this is not the case ; sheep, goats, pigs, horses, 

 cattle, and their owners, all are destroyed ; and when some 

 casualty more exasperating or tragic than usual occurs, 

 public opprobrium descends upon the hereditary huntsman 

 of the commune with true Asiatic violence and unreason. 

 Is he, the accursed, supported in ease and affluence in 

 order to snore like a swine while people and their prop- 

 erty are thus devoured ? Oh Ram ! Ram ! Ram ! May 

 the choicest curses light upon him, may he be beset by 

 all devils whatsoever ! Then the official, who is wholly 

 blameless, and except by accident cannot hope to do any- 

 thing against a beast like this, curses the panther, his 

 fate, his fellow-citizens, and himself; after which every- 

 body forgets the matter. 



No prudential reflections interfere with a panther's sin- 

 gleness of purpose when on the prowl. Blood is his 

 object, and blood he intends to have, so the upshot is that 

 he often finds himself at the bottom of a pit shaped like 

 an inverted pyramid that it is impossible to dig out of. 

 What subsequently happens depends upon the demand 

 for wild beasts. If an agent of Jamrach's has left an order 

 for panthers, or some native ruler signified his will that 

 they be forthcoming immediately, the captive's life is safe. 

 Men arrive in the morning with something that looks like 

 a magnified crate. It is inverted over the pit's mouth, 

 earth is thrown in, the floor rises and with it the captive, 



