2 TRE Te ITS SETS eT 
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260 BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 
put my rifle down to his head, expecting to roll him over like a rabbit 
(as I had succeeded in doing on other occasions), and then place my 
second bullet pretty much where I pleased. ‘lo my horror there 
was no report when the hammer fell! The next moment the panther, 
with an angry roar, sprang on me. Hanging on with the claws of 
one fore-paw driven into my right shoulder and the other round me, 
he tried to get at my head and neck, but I fortunately prevented this 
by raising my left arm which he instantly seized in his huge mouth. 
I shall never forget his sharp, angry roar, the wicked look of tho 
greenish yellow eyes within six inches of mine, the turned-back ears, 
his feotid breath upon my cheek, and the feeling of his huge fangs 
closing to the bone through my arm above the elbow. 
I endeavoured, by giving him my knee in the stomach, to make 
him let go. ‘Those who have ever kicked a cat, can imagine what 
little effect this had. It was more like using one’s knee toa foot- 
ball than anything else. The panther, with a roar, gave a tremen- 
dous wrench to my arm, hurled me some five paces down the side 
of the hill prone onmy face, bringing my head in contact witha tree. 
Stunned and insensible, I lay some seconds on the ground, and the 
brute, thinking me dead, fortunately did not worry me, but, passing 
over me, went for the retreating police constable who had brought 
me into the difficulty. I remember when I came to raising my head 
from the ground, leaning my forehead against the tree, and smiling, 
with a certain feeling of grim satisfaction, when my eye caught the 
retreating form of the constable andthe pursuing panther down the 
hill, and I thought the policeman’s turn had come. In his precipi- 
tate flight, however, this constable went apparently also in his legs, 
for he fell and thus escaped a mauling. 
During the scrimmage the beaters, completely losing their heads, 
bolted here, there, and everywhere, and neither they nor the con- 
stables made the slightest effort to drive the beastoff me. The patel 
or head of the village, clapping his hand to his mouth, shouted at the 
top of his voice: ‘‘ Oh, my wife isa widow, my wife isa widow,’’ 
meaning, I conclude, that if I were killed an avenging but just 
Government would hang him, while, if I survived, in all probability 
I would at once dispose of himin some other but equally effectual 
manner, 
When the panther had passed away police constable Narayen, 
raising me from the ground, inquired if I was much hurt. I replied 
that I feared I must be. He opened my coat and flannel shirt and 
