The Leopard and Panther 173 



through its ear, a pull at which makes the poor little 

 brute continue to squeak, after it has cried itself to silence 

 about its mother. No sentiment of humanity interferes 

 with the devices of the mild Hindu. A dog in a pit with 

 a basket work cover over it, and similarly attached to a 

 line, is equally effective. I ^have known panthers repeat- 

 edly to take animals they have killed up into trees to 

 devour, and once found the body of a child that had been 

 killed by a panther in the Betul District, so disposed of in 

 the fork of a tree. They are very often lost, I believe, 

 by taking unobserved to trees. Beating them out of 

 cover with a strong body of beaters and fireworks is, on 

 the whole, the most successful way of hunting these 

 cunning brutes ; but it is accompanied with a good deal 

 of risk to the beaters, as well as to the sportsman if he 

 is over-venturesome ; and it is liable to end in disappoint- 

 ment in most instances. My own experience is that the 

 majority of panthers one finds, are come across more by 

 luck than good management. 



"A large panther was making himself very troublesome 

 ... in the neighborhood of the Jubbulpur and Mandla 

 road. He had killed several children in different villages, 

 and promised, unless suppressed, to become a regular 

 man-eater. I encamped for some days in the neighbor- 

 hood of his haunts, and the very first night the villain had 

 the impudence to kill and drag away a good-sized baggage 

 pony out of my camp. The night being warm I was sleep- 

 ing outside for the sake of coolness, and was awakened by 

 a riving and gurgling noise close to my bed. It was too 

 dark to see ; so I pulled out the revolver, that in those 



