THE HIGHER NARBADA 295 



by dint of hard running, arrived above and parallel to the 

 bears, and commenced a running fight with them, in which 

 my chances would have been a good deal better had I 

 had a breech- instead of a muzzle-loader. As it was, I had 

 to keep one barrel unfired in case of a charge, and peg 

 away at long iutervals with the other. At last, one of 

 them came round up the hill at me, rising on his hind-legs, 

 pulKng down branches, and dancing and spluttering in 

 so ludicrous a manner, that I could scarcely shoot for 

 laughter. When I did, he got both barrels through the 

 chest, and subsided. I never got the other, as it had 

 sufficient headway to escape into some hollow rocks near 

 the river-side. A wounded bear wiU often charge with 

 great determination. He comes on hke a great cannon- 

 ball ; and the popular idea, that he will rise on his hind-legs 

 in time to give a shot at the " horse-shoe " mark on his 

 chest, to penetrate which is fatal, is, as a rule, a mistake. 

 But a shot, when he is ten or fifteen yards ofi, will nearly 

 always turn, if it does not kiU him. The most successful 

 way of getting bears is to get up very early, and go up to- 

 some commanding position, that overlooks the pathways 

 taken by the animals on their return from the low ground, 

 where they go nightly to feed. They can then either be 

 intercepted, or marked into some cover, and afterwards 

 beaten out. It is a sport of which a httle is great fun ; but 

 one soon tires of it, the animals being generally so easily 

 killed, and furnishing neither trophy (an Indian bearskin 

 being a poor affair) nor food. Most sportsmen ere long 

 come to agree with the natives, and let the ddam-zdd alone, 

 except when they turn up by accident. 



It was in these jungles that I first saw the great rock 

 python of India, which is the subject of so many wonderful 

 tales. I was following the track of a wounded deer, and, 

 the day being very hot, had mounted my horse, a chestnut 

 Arab, from which I could shoot, carrying a rifle. The 

 horse almost trod upon him, lying on a narrow pathway, 

 and started back with a snort, as the great snake slowly 

 twisted himself off the road, and down the slope of the hill, 

 along which it wound. A loud rustling, and here and there 

 the wave of a fold in the grass, told me that something was 

 moving down the bank, and I forced the horse after it, very 



