88 SPORT IN BENGAL. 



his hair on a spot where he had taken a comforting roll very 

 recently on a sandy path, to rid himself of ticks and other 

 parasites, but never a tiger did I see, and my zeal for the 

 public good was becoming cold, when one day, about noon, 

 two men brought me news of a woman having been seized in 

 the midst of their hamlet, only a couple of hours previously, 

 while bringing water from a pond. 



The men could only tell me that the animal which had 

 carried off' the woman was a " bagh," and, not having seen it 

 themselves, were unable to give any description of it. Being 

 engaged at the time on something I wished to get off my 

 hands, and believing the beast to be a panther only, I ordered 

 one man to remain with me as a guide, and the other to 

 return to his village to track up from it the retreat of 

 the animal, and, having done so, to watch till my arrival 

 the spot to which the woman had been carried. Mean- 

 while, ordering two elephants to be prepared, I resumed my 

 work, which was not concluded till past three o'clock in the 

 afternoon. 



I had been told that the " bagh " (which might mean a 

 tiger or a panther equally) would be found about three miles 

 off on the opposite bank of a river. Allowing, therefore, an 

 hour to cover that distance, I calculated upon having* fully a 

 couple of hours of daylight to beat up the piece of light 

 jungle in which the animal, I was told, would lie up in all 

 likelihood ; but when three, four, and five miles were done, 

 and my guide still pointed ahead, I began to regret seriously 

 the delay in starting. At length we had gone about six 

 miles through hamlets and rice-fields without seeing a vestige 

 of covert my Santhal guide, seated behind me in the " how- 

 dah," pointed silently with his finger to a bush a hundred 

 paces ahead and to a thin line of mimosas about the same 

 distance off to our right, and gave me to understand, without 

 uttering a word, that we had reached our goal. As quietly as 

 possible the two elephants advanced abreast a score or two of 

 paces, when out of the shadow of the bush above-mentioned 

 gently rose from a sitting posture a nearly naked little 



