Jungle By-Ways in India 



with a fair head, and a few does. If you have 

 never done this you will often find it a most 

 amusing, if not instructive, proceeding. One 

 thing I learnt that evening — to wit, that the 

 gentler sex, be she a gentle and fair maiden, or 

 a timorous antelope or deer, have all received and 

 absorbed the same sort of instruction from their 

 foremothers— Eve and company. 



This evening the gay young spark of a buck 

 commenced a kind of ' chase me ' with one of the 

 more beautiful young does of his harem. They 

 were just like two children at play. The doe 

 would run for a time in small circles, whose 

 radii got shorter and shorter, the buck following 

 exactly in her tracks. Suddenly, when there was 

 scarce space to turn in, the doe would shoot away, 

 and, with the craftiness of her wily sex, gradually 

 draw the buck onward and onward, just ever 

 keeping out of his reach in the most elusive 

 manner, until she had taken him to some distance 

 from the rest of the herd and had him all to herself. 



Many times have I watched this manoeuvre with 

 secret delight. It is really as good as play, or far 

 better. I stole a glance at the other does of the 

 harem. Oh, no ! they were taking no notice of 

 the performance. Of course not ! And yet I 

 could see the hair bristling with indignation on 

 the neck and shoulders and along the dorsal 

 ridge of that old matron over there, who is per- 

 fectly aware of the giddy goings-on of her Lord 



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