154 SPOET IN BENGAL. 



unabated. At length, when the last effort had been made in 

 a frantic and almost blind rush upon his foes, the bull 

 staggered and nearly fell, as blood spirted from his mouth, 

 nostrils, and a dozen wounds on his body. For a moment or 

 two longer he stood upon his trembling and stradling legs, 

 and in a last effort to make one more charge, the bull fell 

 headlong to the earth and expired with a prolonged bellow 

 of rage and pain. 



Hardly had we dismounted, eased girths, and inspected 

 our prostrate adversary, than shouts arose from all sides, and 

 in less than a quarter of an hour, we were surrounded by a 

 crowd of excited villagers, while women and children turned 

 out of their houses to look on at a distance, as being 

 Mussulmans they might not show their faces or mix among a 

 throng of menfolk. 



This was, I think, the tallest bull I have ever seen (at 

 least he looked it both before and after his death), but we 

 took no measurements, having no tape with us. Possibly 

 being extremely gaunt, he looked taller than he really was. 

 The horns were of moderate size in length and stoutness, and 

 on removing one of them from the bone to examine a wound, 

 we discovered the cause in some measure of his excessively 

 savage and murderous disposition, for it then appeared that 

 he had been struck by a native " Shikaree's" bullet at its root 

 some three days before, at a spot twelve miles distant, as we 

 subsequently learned ; and maggots having got into the 

 wound had driven him in a half mad state raging across 

 country, destroying all that came in his way men, women, 

 children, or cattle. 



It will be seen that in the above encounter my com- 

 panion and I had no great difficulty in eluding the desperate 

 charges of the bull, or in overtaking him afterwards to 

 deliver our fire ; but we had some important advantages in 

 our favour, viz., very fleet and active hunters, mounted by 

 men weighing less than ten stone, sound and hard ground to 

 ride over, rough only where the wild thatching grass still 

 grew, the rest being fields from which the cold weather crops 



