26 WILD MEN AND WILD BEASTS. 



It was in this plain of Dharwar that I made my first and 

 last personal acquaintance with the sting of a scorpion. I 

 was seated on a bank, waiting for my horse to be brought up, 

 and had been pounding the black friable turf between my 

 feet with the butt of my rifle. Scorpio had been disturbed, 

 and quietly walked up the stock and stung me in the point of 

 the finger. I instantly shook him off, and stamped upon him ; 

 but the pain was most acute, and shot up the arm at once. 

 Binding a handkerchief tightly round the finger, I sucked the 

 injured part, and the pain began to subside as the poison was 

 drawn out. In half an hour I did not feel it ; but some time 

 after a callosity formed over the spot. Experiencing a peculiar 

 sensation, I opened this one day with a penknife, and dug out 

 the point of the sting, which had been broken off and remained 

 in the wound. 



To the westward of Dharwar, within a few miles, are some 

 good lakes, or tanks as they are called, much frequented by 

 wild-fowl in the cold weather. There are also many good 

 snipe grounds, and quail and florican in the season are toler- 

 ably plentiful, though by no means in such numbers as in 

 Guzerat. About ten miles to the westward are considerable 

 jungles, stretching away towards the Western Ghauts. In 

 these we found a fair amount of spotted deer and pigs, and 

 also jungle sheep, a small antelope with flat goat-like horns, 

 three inches or four inches in length. 



We generally had these jungles beat by a number of men, 

 taking up our places at the different passes. At one of these 

 beats a large boar and a couple of jungle sheep had fallen to 

 my rifle, and I was on my way to rejoin the other guns when I 

 came on a herd of cheetul or spotted deer crossing my front 

 about sixty yards off. They were just over the brow of a hill 

 covered with grass and jungle, and sloping abruptly down for 



