The upper
jaw is armed with two formidable tusks about twelve inches in length,
and projecting directly forwards. A blow from the claw-furnished tail
would plough up the thigh or rip open the abdomen of a man. A stroke
from one of the paws would fracture his skull, while a wound from the
tusk in almost any part of the body must prove certainly fatal.
Fortunately, the _kargynda_ has not the swiftness of movement
belonging to nearly all our feline races, otherwise its skins, the
most valuable prize of the Martial hunter, would yearly be taken at a
terrible cost of life. Two of these creatures were said to be reposing
in a thick jungle of reeds bordering a narrow stream immediately in
our front. The hunters, with Ergimo, now dismounted and advanced some
two hundred yards in front of their birds, directing the latter to
turn their heads in the opposite direction. I found some difficulty in
making my wish to descend intelligible to the docile creature which
carried me, and was still in the air when one of the enormous
creatures we were hunting rushed out of its hiding-place.
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