THE MAI1ADE0 HILLS. 123 



faggots. Another man carries a long iron rod, with a number 

 of sliding rings, that jingle as he walks. Three or four lusty 

 fellows follow, carrying bamboos fifteen or twenty feet in 

 length ; and the party proceed to move about the edge of the 

 thickets, where unsuspecting hares come out to feed after 

 nightfall. As soon as one appears in the streak of bright 

 light thrown across the ground by the fire-pan, the whole 

 party rush towards her, jingling frantically at the bells, and 

 keeping her terror-stricken form in the circle of light. Poor 

 puss seldom attempts to escape, but sits stupefied by the glare 

 and noise, till a bamboo brought down on her back ends her 

 existence. A party generally gets five or six hares in this 

 way in a few hours. They sometimes come across small deer, 

 and kill them in the same way ; and I have heard stories of 

 panthers and even tigers being met with, and turning the 

 tables on the fire-hunters in an unexpected fashion. I once 

 took a gun out with one of these parties ; but found that it 

 spoiled the whole aifair, all the hares in the neighbourhood 

 retreating to the cover at the first shot. 



I have already said that tigers rarely come on to the 

 plateau. Bears are equally scarce ; in fact, I don't think I 

 ever saw the track of one above the passes, and very few below. 

 The opposite range of Motiir, however, as well as the Maha- 

 deo hills further west, are full of them. The panther, on the 

 other hand, is pretty common in Puchmurree. The first night 

 my camp came up, one of a small flock of sheep I had 

 brought, in case of provisions running short, was killed by 

 a panther close to my tent. He dropped from an overhanging 

 branch into an enclosure of prickly bushes that had been 

 put up round the sheep ; and his attempts to drag it through 

 the fence created such a disturbance among the people that 

 he left it and leaped out in the confusion. The next night he 



