154 Wild Beasts 



— the much talked of eye power, this brute's instinctive 

 avoidance of man, etc., — and it is therefore inserted by 

 way of illustration. 



" I was camped out at the village of Purimdaha, on the 

 edge of a gloomy Sal forest, which was reported to contain 

 numerous leopards. The villagers were a mixed lot of low- 

 caste Hindus and Nepaulese settlers. They had been 

 fighting with the factory, and would not pay up their rents, 

 and I was trying, with every prospect of success, to make 

 an amicable arrangement with them. ... It was the middle 

 of April. The heat was intense. The whole atmosphere 

 had that coppery look that betokens extreme heat, and the 

 air was loaded with a fine, yellow dust which the west wind 

 bore on its fever-laden wings, to disturb the lungs and 

 temper of all good Christians. The Kanats, or canvas 

 walls of the tent, had all been taken down for the sake of 

 coolness, and my camp bed lay in one corner, open all 

 round to the outside air, and only sheltered from the dew. 

 It had been a busy day. I had been going over accounts, 

 and talking with the villagers until I was hoarse. 



" After a light dinner I lay down on my bed, but it was 

 too close and too hot to sleep. By and by the various 

 sounds died out. The tom-toming ceased in the village. 

 My servants suspended their low-muttered gossip around 

 the cook's fire, wrapped themselves in their white cloths, 

 and dropped into slumber. Toby, Nettle, Whiskey, Pincher, 

 and the other terriers looked like so many curled-up hairy 

 balls, and were in the land of dreams. Occasionally a 

 horned owl would give a melancholy hoot from the forest, 

 or a screech owl raise a momentary and damnable din. At 



