22 A SHE-BEAR TO THE RESCUE. 



below, so, leaving her offspring to take care of itself, she 

 quickly cleared out of the tree, and, before I could get a shot 

 at her, had disappeared over the brow. The youngster, not 

 being quite so knowing, took longer in getting down, and so 

 gave me a chance of putting a bullet through his hide, which 

 made him "tune his pipes" pretty loudly, and sent him 

 scampering away down the hill. The cub's cries of distress 

 soon brought its mother back over the brow to the rescue, 

 when she came tearing down the steep slope straight for me, 

 grunting out her wrath in a most savage manner. I waited 

 until she was within fifteen yards or so, and then gave her the 

 contents of the second barrel. This at once doubled her up, 

 her impetus causing her to tumble heels over head close past 

 me. After rolling some way down the hill, she recovered 

 her legs, struggled on a short distance, and then fell to rise 

 no more. I never found out what became of the bereaved 

 cub, but in all probability it did not long survive its dam, as 

 it was hard hit. 



Villagers are not unfrequently seen with their faces fear- 

 fully disfigured from wounds inflicted by bears' claws. But 

 this is easily accounted for, as, when they discover an old 

 thief devouring their crops, they usually surround and attack 

 him with sticks, stones, or any offensive weapons they can 

 lay their hands on. The irritated and affrighted brute, in his 

 endeavour to escape, charges wildly through the yelling mob, 

 and the first man he meets in his headlong course sometimes 

 pays the penalty by being blinded, scalped, or severely mauled 

 about the head ; for a bear, when attacking a human being, 

 almost invariably goes for the face, whereas a tiger or leopard 

 usually seizes a limb first, which is a remarkable and well- 

 known fact. 



On moonlight nights a shot may sometimes be got by 

 watching places where the bears come to feed on the crops 

 from a machdn. This construction is a small platform of 

 sticks, either raised on poles at a safe height from the ground, 



