324 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTEAL INDIA. 



trunk, tearing at the earth and stones and her own body in 

 her bloody rage. She had a cub in the cover, about the size 

 of a cat, which I shot on the way back. 



The method usually resorted to by old Bamanjee and other 

 native shikaris for killing panthers and leopards was, by 

 tying out a kid, with a line attached to a fish-hook 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 repeatedly 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 by a good deal of risk to the 

 beaters as well as to the sportsman, if he is over-venture- 

 some ; and it is apt, also, to end in disappointment in most 

 instances. My own experience is that the majority of pan- 

 thers one finds, are come across more by luck than good 

 management. 



In April, 1861, old Bamanjee, with whom 1 had often been 

 out on short trips with considerable success, induced me to 

 take a month's leave, and accompany him up the Narbada" 

 valley from Jubbulpur to shoot. The game promised con- 

 sisted of tigers, bears, sambar, and spotted deer ; and I found 

 that all these were really attainable in no small numbers. 

 The sambar and bears lived on the hill ranges on either side 

 of the river; while the spotted deer, as usual, kept to the 



