BULLET AND SHOT 



off to one side, I saw a very long tail ; and as 

 I passed the spot, there was a beautiful panther 

 sitting in one of the depressions caused by the 

 removal of soil to form the rough road, looking 

 perfectly unconcerned, and sitting bolt upright on 

 his haunches like a dog. Luckily for me, my pony 

 did not see the brute, or I should probably have 

 come to grief, for he was both hard-mouthed and 

 a stumbler, and would certainly have fallen upon 

 such a road, had he bolted with me. 



In Assam, too, I heard one night the death-yell 

 of a favourite dog which had rushed out barking, 

 after a " pheeaow " had been uttering his unearthly 

 cry, and also after a " shikar cry " from the coolie 

 lines had proclaimed the presence of a wild beast. 

 I tried in vain in this instance to avenge the poor 

 dog. 



Owing to their extraordinary cunning and mar- 

 vellous agility and dexterity, man-eating panthers 

 are even more to be dreaded than are man-eating 

 tigers. 



Sterndale mentions one, in the Seonee district, 

 which established a perfect reign of terror over a 

 tract eighteen miles in diameter, and which in three 

 years' time killed over 200 people. 



The only one of which I have heard in Mysore 

 was killed, or had died, long before my time there. 

 He flourished in the Shimoga district, where he 

 killed a number of people, including a personal 

 servant of the then Deputy-Commissioner (Colonel 

 W. H.), who was marching ahead of his master 

 with the advance guard of his camp. The colonel,, 



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