64 FOREST LIFE AND SPORT IN INDIA 
tions in September, and up to the day of her death, 
in the end of the following March, was credited with 
destroying some seventy human beings. She was 
terrible chiefly because of her extreme cunning in 
capturing her prey, and because of her caution in 
evading reprisals ; and so wary was she that I never 
saw her but once, and that when she lay dead, 
though often she had been within a short distance 
when living. A reward of Rs. 500 was on her head, 
and there could be no sort of error as to her identity, 
for on each track a transverse groove in the soil 
showed where the pad of the right fore-foot had 
been cut across in some former accident, and had 
healed unevenly. It is not improbable that this 
scar indicated the reason why the beast had taken 
to evil habits during a period of painful lameness ; at 
least, the mark was sufficient, and with good cause, 
to strike terror in the hearts of those defenceless 
natives who observed it. There was little forest 
work done that season, and even field cultivation in 
some of the hill villages was abandoned; for the 
brute roamed over an area of about sixty square 
miles, and the kill of one day was as often as not 
a long march from the scene of the last tragedy. As 
usual, the women were the chief sufferers, for on 
them fell the duty of cutting fodder for the cattle, 
and of bringing in head-loads of fuel for the winter 
fires, and well was it for them not to stray far from 
their party when in the forest, or to lag behind 
when taking the homeward path. Nor were the 
men safe from attacks, the more appalling from their 
suddenness, and the more nerve-destroying because 
of their daring, till at last the sound of the axe in 
