268 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTEAL INDIA 



Jubbulpur, with a detachment of my regiment, I shot 

 seven panthers and leopards in less than a month, within 

 a few miles of the station, chiefly by driving them out 

 with beaters ; all of them charged who had the power to 

 do so ; but the little cherub who watches over " griffins " 

 got us out of it without damage either to myself or the 

 beaters. One of the smaller species, really not more 

 than five feet long, I believe, charged me three several 

 times up a bank to the very muzzle of my rifle (of which 

 I luckily had a couple), falling back each time to the 

 shot, but not dreaming of trying to escape, and dying 

 at last at my feet with her teeth closed on the root of a 

 small tree. This animal had about six inches of the 

 quill of a porcupine broken off in her chest. Another 

 jumped on my horse, when passing through some long 

 grass, before she was fired at at aU ; and after being kicked 

 ofi charged my groom and gun-carrier, who barely escaped 

 by fleeing for their lives, leaving my only gun in the 

 possession of the leopard. I had to ride to cantonments 

 for another rifle, and to get together some beaters. When 

 we returned, I took up my post on a rock which overlooked 

 the patch of grass ; and the beaters had scarcely commenced 

 their noise before the leopard went at them like an arrow. 

 An accident would certainly have happened this time 

 had my shots failed to stop this devil incarnate before 

 she reached them. She had cubs in the grass, which 

 accounted for her fury ; but a tigress would have abandoned 

 them to their fate in a similar case. The last I killed was 

 a man-eater, which took up his post among the high crops 

 surrounding a village, and killed and dragged in women 

 and children who ventured out of the village. He was 

 a panther of the largest size, and had been wounded by 

 a shikari from a tree, the ball passing through his external 

 ear and one of his paws, and rendering him incapable 

 of killing game. I was a week hunting him, as he was 

 very careful not to show himself when pursued; and at 

 last I shot him in a cowhouse into which he had ventured, 

 and killed several head of cattle, before the people had 

 courage to shut the door. 

 When a panther takes to man-eating, he is a far more 



