THE HIGHER NARBADl 283 



steadily advanced, and, finding she could not put us to 

 flight, she took to it herself, and suddenly bounded again 

 towards the ravine. I had another shot as she was disap- 

 pearing over the bank. This time it was the large rifle, 

 and she caught it unmistakably; for, on coming to the 

 place where she had vanished, we could hear her down 

 below, growUng and struggling on the ground. The de- 

 scent here was more gradual, though the bamboo cover 

 was dreadfully thick. The elephant was sUding down on her 

 haunches, stones and earth rolling down before her. The 

 growling grew deeper as we descended, and the noise of 

 struggUng ceased, as if the tigress had collected herself for 

 a last charge. The bamboo stems kept whipping me in the 

 face as I stood in the howdah with my double smooth-bore 

 ready for the cowp de grace. My face was soon covered 

 with blood, and my shooting-jacket torn to ribands. A 

 raging thirst parched my throat, for I had now been some 

 five hours in the sun ; and my hat having been swept off 

 on first entering the bamboos, its rays had been for some 

 time beating full on my unprotected skuU. I felt my head 

 begin to swim, and the bamboo stems to dance before me 

 in an indistinct maze. Had it lasted much longer, I feel 

 certain I must have had a sunstroke ; but the last act was 

 playing out. Crash went the elephant into a dense clump 

 of bamboos; a jagged stem seized me by the neck; and 

 as I raised my hand to disengage it, the roar of the tigress 

 burst forth in my very face; a striped form rose in the 

 centre of the clump, in the act of bounding on the elephant's 

 head. Leaning over the railing of the howdah, I levelled 

 the gun, double-shotted in both barrels, at her chest; 

 and the next moment was shouting out : " For God's sake, 

 bring that claret and water, will you, and come down, 

 half-a-dozen of you, and take up this carcase ! " 



So I bagged the whole family, to the no small dehght 

 of the cattle-keepers of the place. 



A large panther was making himself very troublesome 

 at that time in the neighbourhood of the Jubbulpiir and 

 Mandla road. He had killed several children in different 

 villages, and promised, unless suppressed, to become a 

 regular man-eater. I encamped for some days in the 



