106 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA 



the-wisp-Uke light flitting about the edges of the little 

 eminences across the valley below my tent, accompanied 

 by a faint jingle as of bells. It is very simple. One man 

 carries a pole across his shoulders, from the fore end of 

 which is slung an earthen pan full of blazing fagots of 

 the torch-wood tree,^ arranged so as to throw the light 

 ahead. The pan is made out of one of their ordinary 

 earthen water-vessels, by knocking out the side. It is 

 balanced at the other end by a basket of spare fagots. 

 Another man carries a long iron rod, with a number of 

 sliding rings, that jingle as he walks. Three or four lusty 

 fellows follow, carrying bamboos fifteen or twenty feet in 

 length ; and the party proceed to move about the edge of 

 the thickets, where unsuspecting hares come out to feed 

 after nightfall. As soon as one appears in the streak of 

 bright light thrown across the ground by the fire-pan, 

 the whole party rush towards her, jingling frantically at 

 the bells, and keeping her terror-stricken form in the circle 

 of light. Poor puss seldom attempts to escape, but sits 

 stupefied by the glare and noise, till a bamboo brought 

 down on her back ends her existence. A party generally 

 gets five or six hares in this way in a few hours. They 

 sometimes come across small deer, and kill them in the 

 same way ; and I have heard stories of panthers and even 

 tigers being met with, and turning the tables on the fire- 

 himters in an unexpected fashion. I once took a gun out 

 with one of these parties; but found that it spoiled the 

 whole afiair, all the hares in the neighbourhood retreating 

 to the cover at the first shot. 



I have already said that tigers rarely come on to the 

 plateau. Bears are equally scarce ; in fact, I don't think 

 I ever saw the track of one above the passes, and very few 

 below. The opposite range of Motur, however, as well as 

 the Mahadeo hills further west, are full of them. The 

 panther, on the other hand, is pretty common in Puch- 

 murree. The first night my camp came up, one of a 

 small flock of sheep I had brought, in case of provisions 

 running short, was killed by a panther close to my tent. 

 He dropped from an overhanging branch into an enclosure 

 ^ Cochlospermum gossypium. 



