romancer I disbelieved him. On
the other side of the stream was a gentle slope of turf and bushes,
rising gradually to a rocky hill. The slope was dotted with grazing
herds, and here and there a group of buffalos. Late in the afternoon
I heard some piercing cries from my people of "_Bagh! Bagh!_" The
cows stampeded, as they always do. A struggle was going on in the
bush, with loud cries of a human voice. The buffalos threw up their
heads, and, grunting loudly, charged down on the spot, and then in
a body went charging on through the brushwood. Other herdsmen and
villagers ran up, and a charpoy was sent for and the man brought into
the village. He was badly scratched, but had escaped any serious fang
wounds from his having, as he said, seen the tiger coming at him,
and stuffed his blanket into his open mouth, whilst he belaboured
him with his axe. Anyhow but for his buffalos he would have been a
dead man in three minutes more.

THE PARDS OR PANTHERS.

To these are commonly assigned the name of Leopard, which ought
properly to be restricted to the hunting leopard (_Felis jubata_),
to which we have also misappropriated the Indian name _Chita_, which
applies to all spotted cats, _Chita-bagh_ being spotted tiger. The
same term, derived from the adjective _chhita_, spotted or sprinkled,
applies in various forms to the other creatures, such as _Chital_,
the spotted deer (_Axis_), _Chita-bora_, a kind of speckled snake,
&c. _Leopardus_ or lion-panther was, without doubt, the name given
by the ancients to the hunting leopard, which was well known to them
from its extending into Africa and Arabia. Assuredly the prophet
Habakkuk spoke of the hunting chita when he said of the Chaldaeans:
"That bitter and hasty nation . . . their horses also are swifter
than the leopards," for the pard is not a swift animal, whereas the
speed of the other is well known.

The name was given to it by the ancients on the supposition that it
was a cross between the lion and the pard, from a fancied resemblance
to the former on account of the mane or ruff of hair possessed by
the hunting leopard. Apparently this animal must have been more
familiar to our remote ancestors than the pard, for the name has been
attached for centuries to the larger spotted Cats indiscriminately.
I have not time just now to attempt to trace the species of the leopard
which formerly graced the arms of the English kings, but I should
not be surprised if it were the guepar