//V.'EA’JS. 35 
work on Indian folk-lore, the tribe is to be found amongst the 
Dhangars of Mirzapur. 
In order to rid themselves of these animals when they become 
numerous and dangerous the natives resort to all kinds of 
expedients ; they make spring traps of steel or stout iron, baiting 
the same with an enticing morsel, and occasionally they will 
employ stout nooses to entrap them. In the Punjaub, when a 
den has been discovered, three or four adventurous villagers, 
Mr. Barlow tells me, will provide themselves with a coil of stout 
cord, a pole, a couple of pitchforks, and a small oil lamp, or 
chiragh," and proceed to the spot. Generally two men will 
enter the den, one holding the lighted lamp, and the other the 
cord, calling out as they crawl in on their hands and knees, 
“ There is nothing here ! there is nothing here ! ” which they believe 
will put the animal off his guard. When they come upon the 
brute, the man with the lamp holds it so as to shine fully on the 
animal’s face, and the other man stealthily proceeds to tie its hind 
legs together ; and strange as it may seem, the animal offers no 
resistance to the binding process so long as the light shines in its 
eyes ; but if by any accident the light should go out the men are 
at once attacked most fiercely, and with many blows from them, 
and shouts from their friends outside, it is with great difficulty 
driven back. If all is successful, however, the men retreat 
quietly backwards, the one holding the light, and the other 
paying out the cord, and when they reach the open air the 
hyaena, or “lukni bughfi,” is forcibly dragged to the mouth of the 
cave, where the two men are ready with their pitchforks to pin 
him by his neck to the ground. He is then gagged with a short 
hard stick called a “ danda,” his fore legs are then also tied 
together and he is slung on the pole, and so conveyed to the 
village to be clubbed by the men, or worried to death by the dogs. 
It may be interesting to wind up this paper with one or two 
superstitions that the Punjabis have in connection with this 
animal. They believe that to tie some of the coarse hair of a 
hyaena on to a butter churn, or “madham,” will ensure double 
the supply ; again, if any native woman is successful in enticing 
one of these hyaenas to eat of a sweet cake called “ chooree,” he 
will at once suffer himself to be captured, and even allow his 
ears to be pierced, and earrings hung upon them. The animal 
so adorned will, as the legend goes, invariably bring good 
fortune to the woman by the increase of sons in her household. 
J. F. A. McNair. 
Swallows in November. — I saw a martin at Wood Green on November 
to last, and also two swallows at Ebbsfleet, and several martins at Dover on 
November 12. The appearance of a martin at Wood Green as late as November 
10 is quite exceptional. The usual time for their leaving that neighbourhood has- 
been the second week in October. 
