172 THE FORESTS OF UPPER INDIA 



is nothing so human-looking as a bear after his skin is off. 

 Having no tail, and hands with wide palms and arms like 

 a muscular athlete's, not so disproportionately long as an 

 ape's, he might almost be mistaken for a Herculean man. 

 His feet also are ridiculously like a man's feet and leave 

 quite a human impression. His legs are certainly short 

 and bowed, but so are some strong men's. He is not 

 quadrumanous like a monkey, but more nearly a biped 

 with hands. His head certainly is not human in shape, 

 but, when the skin is off, the skull is not so unlike that of 

 a low-caste African's. His ears are similarly placed and 

 his neck is equally muscular. 



They build nests in trees, of which I have come across 

 a good many, principally in tall oak-trees, like bowers 

 made of evergreen boughs, and arched overhead to keep 

 off the sun. They sit in them in the warm weather, a 

 very sensible arrangement for getting the air. I have 

 seen bears digging for ants and taking honey, and they 

 use their forepaws and long nails just as a savage man 

 might use his hands. Their food is mostly vegetable, as 

 is that of the human race, though they also eat flesh when 

 they are very hungry, and do not refuse the carcases of 

 dead beasts which they may find ; but they seldom kill 

 anything larger than bees and ants. It seems rather a 

 shame to shoot so well-disposed a beast, but they do an 

 immense amount of damage to crops, and Government 

 gives a reward varying from two rupees to five rupees for 

 their heads. They are not admired much by the owners 

 of cattle, as a calf is said to be sometimes carried off 

 by a hara halu which has come on it from the thick 

 jungle. One night, when encamped under a spreading 

 mango-tree in which was a wild bees' nest, I was awakened 

 by the shaking of the boughs over my tent, and went 

 out in night attire to see what it could be. As I kept 



