46 The Poets Beasts. 



on the largest game, the sambhur stag, nilghai, cattle, horses, 

 and man — one panther in the Gwalior state having been 

 known to kill fifty human beings in one district. If wounded 

 from a tree it will climb up to its assailant and attack him 

 there, and will charge an elephant as cheerfully as the 

 tiger does. 



The leopard (I am here accepting the theory that there 

 really are two species of the animal), though not so formid- 

 able, is still a dangerous antagonist, but, as a rule, it does 

 not aspire to larger victims than sheep and goats, the smaller 

 varieties of deer and antelope, calves, and, above all, dogs. 

 Now the poets, as Broome and Somerville, seem to think 

 the leopard looks upon the dog as its natural master and 

 conqueror, whereas the fact is that the leopard looks upon 

 the dog as its natural food. The leopard's taste for dogs is 

 certainly one of the most extraordinary phenomena in natural 

 history. We say that cats like fish and that monkeys are 

 fond of nuts, but these are mere passing whims, caprices of 

 the moment, compared to the constant passion of leopards 

 for dogs. It is a very Chinaman for its delight in puppy, for 

 it will follow a man for miles like his shadow if a dog be at 

 his heels, — and it will be a very extraordinary dog indeed if 

 it does not at last give the leopard its chance. The best of 

 them sometimes commits the indiscretion of loitering behind 

 its master or running out of sight round a corner in front of 

 him, and if it does this with a leopard on the track nothing 

 more is ever seen of the dog, and nothing more heard of it 

 but a last squeal as it is swiftly snatched up off the path and 

 carried, with a sudden rustle of foliage, down the hill-side. 

 At night, leopards will prowl round the tent, snifting under 

 the canvas for the dog that they can smell within, or in the 

 hill stations will boldly come down among the houses and 

 carry off the pet of the establishment, though servants may 

 be moving about. It is on record that in the station of 

 Gumsoor not a single dog escaped, and nearly every 



