134 THE WILDERNESS AND JUNGLE 



leopard nearly led to trouble. It was on the 

 best of terms with all the household and quite 

 friendly with the neighbours, so that it was 

 allowed to roam at large without fear of 

 accident. One day, however, in famine time, 

 a party of natives went past the door talking 

 over the high price of rice in the market, and 

 a little way behind the rest trudged a woman 

 with a baby in her arms. This was too good 

 an opportunity to lose, and the playful leopard 

 proceeded to stalk the woman, getting close 

 up before she turned her head and caught 

 sight of it in the act of springing. With a 

 yell, the devoted mother flung her baby on the 

 ground and took to her heels, and the leopard 

 alighted beside the child and proceeded, using 

 no more strength than it had previously exer- 

 cised unrebuked on its owner's scalp, to bite 

 its nose. The effect was, as may be imagined, 

 somewhat different from that to which the 

 leopard was accustomed, for back came the 

 distraught mother, who had forgotten to carry 

 her child out of danger, calling on all her 

 gods and vowing that the baby would die. 

 Fortunately Colonel Williamson was at home, 

 and he at once set about bathing the infant's 

 face and soothing it into silence, which was 

 more than he could do with the mother, who 

 was now screaming herself into hysterics. 

 However, a present of a couple of rupees 



