BEARS. 9 



One day, in camp at Poppinapett, the village Patel 

 (head man) came to ask us to shoot a mad jackal which 

 had taken up his quarters in a rice field close by, and 

 had bitten several natives, but on our way out we 

 heard that an Arab had shot it with a match -lock. About 

 twelve of the bitten natives came into camp and had their 

 wounds cauterised, but six or seven succumbed to hydro- 

 phobia, as I afterwards heard, when in that district some 

 years later, on a tiger shooting trip. During that expedi- 

 tion two friends (whom I will designate Poulton and 

 Manley) of the 18th Hussars (who were then quartered at 

 Secunderabad) and I, arrived at Bokur, some 150 miles to 

 the north, early in April ; the weather was very hot, and 

 we had good fun with tigers, panthers, and bears, the last 

 especially affording great sport. The surrounding country 

 consisted for the most part of undulating ground, covered 

 with long spear-grass, and dotted about with clumps of 

 Pa-las kino and custard apple bushes, with here and there a 

 nullah shaded by thespesia, caroonda, and Indian beech 

 trees. It was an unlikely looking jungle for bears, owing 

 to the absence of caves and rocky ground, yet we met w r ith 

 a good many, which had evidently come from a distance, 

 being attracted by the flowers of the Mhowa a tree which 

 was plentiful in that locality. Our plan of campaign was 

 to repair in the early morning to some high ground near 

 the camp, and there take up positions some distance apart, 

 detaching local shikaries in pairs, to neighbouring points. 

 These scouts had been ordered to follow and mark down 

 any bears they might see ; one of them was then to return 

 with the news to the nearest sahib, or to the camp, the 

 other remaining to watch the bear. The head shikari and 

 his two assistants always visited the buffaloes that had 

 been tied up for tigers in the early morning, and were 



