Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/529

463 recesses of these groves, leopards, wild dogs, jackals, bears, and, more rarely, tigers, lie concealed, going forth by night to seek their prey. One village was pointed out to me which had been deserted by its inhabitants, because a woman had been carried off by a tiger from a neighbouring forest; and while we were on the hills, a poor shikaree (native hunter) was killed by one of these savage beasts while with a party beating the woods for some English sportsmen. Happily, they rarely attack man if not pursued or brought to bay, excepting, as has been before mentioned, in the case of “the man-eater," who, having tasted human blood, seems to hunt for men, lying in wait for them with wonderful craft. In such cases their ravages are fearful. Although I was constantly wandering through the forests, while on the hills, none of these dangerous neighbours showed themselves to me; if I passed their lairs, they kept quietly within them; yet, in some dark, dense, jungly-places, I would at times have a nervous inclination to look over my shoulder to see if I had company. One morning, while walking, staff in hand, upon a hill-side, I met a leopard apparently returning, from a night excursion, to his den. He came slowly up the declivity as I