346 WE GO IN AT THE PANTHER. 



but could not get Tn'm to move. Something desperate was evidently required. 

 We were all much excited, and when I proposed to go at him there was no 

 hesitation on the part of the plucky Torreas. A large number accom- 

 panied me, all armed with boar-spears, which were, however, too long and 

 top-heavy to be used effectively, except for a deliberate thrast. We formed 

 up inside the circle in a wedge-shaped mass, I taking the apex or most 

 advanced point with my rifle, and the spearmen guarding both flanks. 

 We advanced slowly, throwing stones and firebrands to the place where we 

 knew the brute was hiding. He was lying, as we subsequently found, in 

 a shallow fissure covered with briers, where none of these missiles reached 

 him, and he probably could not see us distinctly or he would not, I am 

 convinced, have attacked so formidable a party. When we were close upon 

 him, all of us wound up to the highest pitch of excitement, out he came 

 with the usual grunting roars of an attacking member of the Felidoe, passed 

 me like a flash of lightning, and struck down the man the third to my left. 

 Almost before he fell the panther had sprung from him on to a second and 

 a third of the line, growling and cuffing right and left, and then away he 

 went behind us, into the jungle-overhung ravine. His movements were so 

 rapid, and I was so hampered by the people grouped about, that I had not 

 a chance of firing. The men had failed, from the length of their spears, and 

 the short hold which they were obHged to take of them, to make them of 

 any service in keeping him off. 



This was vastly well. Four men hors de combat, and not a shot fired on 

 our side. It was fortunate that the panther had been so flurried that he 

 had no time to do more mischief. None of the men were even bitten. 

 One was clawed on his chest, one on his abdomen, and the other over his 

 shoulder. I do not look upon this undertaking as one we ought to have 

 failed in had the men had better spears. There is no reason why a few deter- 

 mined men should not make short work of an animal not much bigger than 

 a mastiff, even though it possess the cat's agility, I know of one case of 

 a panther having been killed by a few natives with bill-hooks. He was 

 lying in a garden and attacked one of them who approached him unawares. 

 The others rushed in and finished him at once. In November 1873 a 

 ryot near Morlay killed a tiger, upwards of two-thirds grown, that attacked 

 him when similarly stumbled upon. The brute held him by the left arm 

 until the man kiUed him with his cutty, or heavy chopper. I saw both the 

 dead tiger and the wounded man immediately after the occurrence, and the 

 plucky feUow had the good fortune to recover from his wounds, severe 

 though tliey were. 



We could now do nothing but wait till the markers observed where the 



