The Grit-advocate., 1905-02-17

'Iph'HIilS 1T me bbllolll ol SI'f'b
bank. gazing at Il spot some twenty
feet higher up. II was evident from
their gestures and their cautious move
mentS that something unusual was tax
ing place, and. disguised with the lack
of sport, l seized gladly upon the
chance of something more exciting
Throwing down my rod. | crossed the
stream ut II shallow $ pot and joined
them. ! recognized two or them, half
naked villagers whom had seen the
day before, leading Il little leopard cub
by n chain. had asked them what
they We're going TO do with the little
clumsy. furry creature. no larger than
an ordinary cat, for l wished TO pur-
chase it and keep ii as Il pet. But my
highest offer failed to tempt them and
| could not discover what they wanted
with the cub.
With these men were four others. all
sturdy fellows of the cultivator class.
clad only in waist cloth and puggarec.
and each of them was armed with II
lathi. heavy bamboo staff about five
feet long. tipped with Il massive brass
knob. On the ground was Il great heap
of the dried COW dung cakes used for
fuel As l looked at these | began to
have an inkling of what was 10 hap
pen.
The surrounding country was of a
Kind never seen in England. On either
side of the stream was Il belt half II
mile wide, of barren land. SCARED and
scanned i'll every direction by the heavy
rains of the wet season: deSolatc
belt. the haunt of the little chinkara
antelope. the gray partridge and the
sand grouse. The stream itself. half
empty now. but Il foaming torrent in
the rains. ran in channel carved deep
in the friablc soil. The bank where we
were standing was thirty or forty feet
high, and ran stceply down to the Wa
ter's edge. \ number of whitened
bones and Il few chinkara horns were
Strewn about the ground. and from Il
hole half way up the bank, at which
the natives We're staring ihtcntly. came
an overpowering stencil. like that of
the lion house in the Geological Car
Gems. but many times worse.
One of the men. in answer TO my
question. told me that the hole was the
entrance to II cave. in which Il leopard.
which had for long haunted the neigh
borhOod, had her lair Recently Il pair
of cubs had been born. and these men,
having watched the mother leave he
cave in search of prey, had carried off
the cubs, to be used as a bait to lure
her to destruction. They kept the cubs
for three days. and then. when the
mother must have been desperate ut
the loss OF her offspring. they had
watched her go out again. anl in her
absence had tied up one Of the cubs
at the back of the cave. 1t was neces-
sary to do this in order that they might
proceed undisturbed with their opera
tions. for they knew that the leopard
would never leave the cave while her
cub remained bound within it. AS
soon. as the man whom they left to
watch the entrance to the cave report
cd that the leopard had returned. they
set out. armed as | have described.
with the intention Of smoking her out.
1t WAS an unsportsmanlike way Of
destroying the creature but | did not
interfere, for | was anXiOns to watch
their proceedings. and had. moreover
no rifle with me. The natives began by
collecting Il large number of heavy
stones. which they hauled up TO the
mouth of the cave and began to block
ii up. Before they began pcered into
hn l,,,t it,h ,pi- inS Il
and l could see nothing. They pro-
cccded to build up the entrance meth
odically. paying no heed to the con-
tinuous low growing from within. In
a short time they had quite closed it
up. with the exception of one hole Il
few inches across. and the stones were
so firmly wedgcd as to be quite i'm
movable. They next brought stiff wet
clay from the bed of the stream. with
which they proceeded to stop up the
chinks and crannies between the
stones
After this had been done. the COW
dung cakes were brought up. They
set fire to them one by one, and, after
blowing upon them until they were
wei iilSnl. tnps THREW tltlll illlb llp
cave through the small hole they had
left. These cakes of fuel will 20 OH
smouldering for hours, and they give
out great deal of pungcnt smoke.
Over "A hundred of them were lighted
and thrown into the cave. and finally
the natives stopped up the remaining
hole with Il lump of wet clay, and then
sat down to wait.
After half an hour or so I suggested
that the smoke must have done its
work. But the natives would not hear
of opening the cave so quickly: their
sporting instincts were not sufficient
ly developed to allow them to give the
leopard the smallest chance to escape.
With true Oriental patience they
squatted on their hams. passing around
an Carthenwar nine from the smell