In an Indian Jungle 



sure to go too high. These sloth bears are the 

 terror of the jungle to natives, as they sleep so 

 soundly that a man may almost tread on one, but 

 being aroused they get up on their hind legs and, 

 pawing the air, hurry past their unfortunate dis- 

 turber ; in passing they deal one fearful swinging 

 blow, striking always about the height of a man's 

 face, and ripping off flesh, features, eyes, and scalp, 

 but leaving the victim with life, exactly as Kipling 

 describes in his poem, " The Truce of the Bear," 

 where " Matun, the old blind beggar, bandaged 

 from brow to chin," relates his encounter with 

 one. There are many such Matuns in India. 



One day we came on a large, dark, brackish 

 pool in the forest. While passing, my eye was 

 caught by the light playing very vividly on a 

 branch overhanging the water; looking more 

 carefully, I saw an immense python was coiled 

 around it, his head and a few feet of his length 

 were hanging down. So absolutely still was he 

 that, though he was quite close, we might easily 

 have passed without noticing him. Here he might 

 lie a day or more till some animal, coming to drink, 

 would pass within reach; then, in a flash, a few 

 more coils would be loosed, and down he would 

 come, take a turn round his victim, and with the 

 leverage of his tail still round the bough, swiftly 

 but surely constrict till his prey became a pulp 

 fit to be salivered over and swallowed whole. 



7 



