MAULED BY A PANTHER. O61 
taid bare my gnawed arm and clawed shoulder, bleeding profusely. 
Feeling faint from loss of blood, I got Narayen to wrap his head-dress 
round and round the arm and pour cold water on it, and giving 
him strict injunctions to lay meé flat and pour water on my head in 
case [ fainted (natives invariably prop you up in a sitting position 
when you faint, and there kéep you until you die !) 1 began the 
descent of the hill. Ireached my little nag saddled and waiting for 
ine, and mounting it, 1 simply turned her lead towards home and 
flew over the five miles of broken country track to my camp at 
Tongaldhara, the other side of the hill. As I sped through the air 
the wet bandages on my wounds felt icy, cold and refreshed me, so 
that I could not believe I was much hurt. The wayfarers on tho 
road must have been astonished at the appearance of their District 
Magistrate and Collector as { galloped along; arid, indeed, L observed 
that they all pulled up and looked after me as I passed bleeding from 
my forehead and with the arms of Narayen’s coat which I lad merely 
buttoned af the neck and his pagri flying in streamers behind me on 
the breeze. WhenI reached my tents the scene was one rather 
ealculated to unnerve ever a stronger man than me. All my ser- 
vants, butler, cook, mate, dressing boy, &c., &c., gathering round, as 
Tt bathed the woundsin cold water and re-wet the bandages, and ery: 
ing piteously, told me I never could recover from such deep injuries. 
Y tried to persuade them I was all right, ard as if to disprove their 
mournful predictions I became quité elated in spirits, and after 
swallowing a cup of tea, I started, with my dressing boy, in my pony 
trap, for Nasik. The lad driving, rattled over the ten miles of good 
¥oad almost as fast as the mounted policeman I sent ahead to 
summon the Doctor to my house, and two hours and a half had not 
elapsed from the time of my mauling before I was in the hands of 
the Civil Surgeon of the Station. 
The Doctor probed the teeth wounds in the arm snd fouiid that 
at the back of the arm ran right to the bone ard was an inch 
and a halfdeep. The two wounds on the inner side; in or close to 
the biceps, were one an inch and a quarter and the other an inch 
deep. The claw wounds on the right shoulder were not serious, 
and had fortunately just missed the large artery near the collar bone, 
injury to which would have resulted in my bleeding te death ina very 
few minutes. 
Carbolie acid and water lotion bandages were applied, and these 
my servants kept wet night andday. My head, as the Doctor feared 
36 
