A MAN-EATING WOLF. 89 



the mysterious disappearances were very like the 

 work of a man-eating wolf, as the victims if 

 victims they were always vanished at night ; 

 they were generally taken from the verandah of 

 their huts, and not a bone of the unfortunates 

 was found. The tiger will usually leave the larger 

 bones of the creatures he preys on ; wolves will not 

 leave a vestige, as they are more fond of bones 

 than even dogs are. But even this reasoning 

 appeared to be at fault, for at first no trace of 

 any creature's foot-marks could be found. 

 Eventually, however, near to some of the houses 

 from which people had disappeared, there was seen 

 the trail of some animal which no one could recog- 

 nise. It certainly was not the track of any known 

 animal, and the Bheels and local shikaris regarded 

 it as :< uncanny/' and ascribed it to a wood- 

 demon or rakshasha. Four rounded holes, with a 

 brush-like mark before and behind, were all that 

 could be seen, and these disappeared sometimes 

 in places where distinct trail should have been 

 found. Cumberledge was nonplussed, and told 

 me his tale with much chagrin. He had been 

 a fortnight on the spot and was no nearer the 

 solution of the mystery than when he arrived. 

 Indeed, he admitted to me that he was more 

 puzzled now than when he first came, as the 

 ideas he had formed on the subject had had 

 to be abandoned one by one, and he was now 

 further off than ever from scenting a trail. Two 

 persons were missing since his arrival on the 

 spot : one the wife of the village herdsman, taken 



