horseback for the beaters to slightly alter their intended line of
beat, we rode off, attended by the villager, to get behind the
leopard's lair, and see if we could not secure him. These fierce and
courageous brutes, for they are both, are very common in the sal
jungles; and as I have seen several killed, both in Bhaugulpore and
Oudh, I must devote a chapter to the subject.




CHAPTER XII.


The leopard.--How to shoot him.--Gallant encounter with a wounded
one.--Encounter with a leopard in a dak bungalow.--Pat shoots two
leopards.--Effects of the Express bullet.--The 'Sirwah Purrul,' or
annual festival of huntsmen.--The Hindoo ryot.--Rice-planting and
harvest.--Poverty of the ryot.--His apathy.--Village fires.--Want of
sanitation.

Writing principally for friends at home, who are not familiar with
Indian life, I must narrate facts that, although well known in Indian
circles, are yet new to the general reader in England. My object is of
course to represent the life we lead in the far East, and to give a
series of pictures of what is going on there. If I occasionally touch
on what may to Indian readers seem well-worn ground, they will forgive
me.

The leopard then, as a rule keeps to the wooded parts of India. In the
long grassy jungles bordering the Koosee he is not generally met with.