Horns 



front, and another of the little grass areas, or 

 maidans, appeared before us. It looked quite a 

 small one from our position, the forest on either 

 side being only some 150 yards apart, whilst 

 its length was some 250 yards. As a matter of 

 fact, it opened out into a much larger area of 

 park-like country, but that I only discovered sub- 

 sequently. The events to be related here took 

 place in the arena of the small maidan. 



We cautiously approached the edge of the 

 forest to see a few chitul does disappearing. 

 Save for these the little area at first appeared 

 empty. But what was that dark object some 

 80 yards away ? ' Bhalu (bear),' said Kanig. 

 ' Bhalu, Sahib.' I looked. The maidan was 

 covered with the usual coarse tussocky grass, 

 about 3 feet high, peculiar to this part of India. 

 The high stuff was interspersed with spaces where 

 the grass was quite short — the areas having been 

 probably cut over by villagers or the local jungle 

 tribes. As the black object was in one of the 

 3-foot patches of grass, I had strong doubts about 

 it being a bear. Ramming a couple of cartridges 

 into my -500, we crept forward, and soon saw that 

 the black object was a bison. This had been my 

 first thought, as it was not the first time I have 

 stood up against one of these shy, timid, but 

 amongst the wiliest and cutest animals of the 

 jungle. We moved silently forward, the shikari, 

 after the nature of his tribe, whispering exhorta- 



153 



