Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 March 1894 — HUNTING WITH THE CHETAH. [ARTICLE]

HUNTING WITH THE CHETAH.

An Indian Sport More Than Two Thousand Years Old. The Century contains an article on “Hunting with the Chetah,” asport which has been known for more than 2,000 years. It is still sometimes practised in India. , The chetah, commonly known as the hunting leopard, is taken, bound in a wagon, to the scene of the sport, When his prey is sighted and the wagon has been brought sufficiently near, the animal is loosed from his bonds. The following is an extract from the Century article: In a few minutes, that to our anxious minds seemed interminable, we managed to diminish the distance to the requisite point, and again the straps were liberated. The hood was then slipped from the chetah’s head. He saw the animals at once; his body quivered all over with excitement, the tail straightened, and the hackles on his shoulders stood erect, while his eyes gleamed, and he strained at the cord, which was held short. In a second it was unfastened, there was a yellow streak in the air, and the chetah was crouching low some yards away. In this position, and taking advantage of a certain unevenness of the ground which gave him cover, he stealthily crept forward toward a buck that was feeding some distance away from the others. Suddenly this antelope saw or scented his enemy, for he was off like the wind. He was, however, too late; the chetah had been too quick for him. All there was to be seen was a flash, as the supreme rush was made. This movement of the cheta’h is said to be, for the time it lasts, the quickest thing in the animal world, [ar surpassing the speed of a race-horse. Certainly it surprised all of us, who were intently watching the details of the scene being enacted in our view. The pace was so marvelously great that the chetah actually sprang past the buck, although by this time the terrified

animal was fairly stretched out at panic speed. This overshooting the mark by the chetah had the effect of driving the antelope, which swerved off immediately from his line, into running round in a circle, with the chetah on the outside. The tongas were galloped up, and the excitement of the occupants can hardly be described. In my eagerness to see the finish, I jumped off and took to running, but the hunt was soon over, for before I could get quite up, the chetah got close to the buck, and with a spring at his haunches, brought him to the ground. The leopard then suddenly released - his hold, and sprang at his victim’s throat, throwing his prey over on its back, where it was held when we arrived at the spot. The chetah was then crouching low, sucking the blood from the jugular vein, while tenaciously clinging with his mouth to the antelope’s throat. The buck gave only a few spasmodic jerks and appeared to be dead, though probably not so in reality, but only paralyzed by fear. One of the men stooped down and plunged a knife into the buck’s neck close to the spot where the chetah still held fast. This coup de grace not only terminated the poor thing’s existence, but caused the blood to flow freely, which one of the men proceeded to catch in a large wooden bowl with a long hapdle, that he had brought for the purpose. When this was full, the hood was thrust over the chetah’s eyes, his fetters were replaced, and he was ultimately induced to let go his hold of the antelope by the bowl of steaming hot blood being slipped under his nose. Into this dainty reward for his trouble he at once plunged his head, and with ferocious eagerness lapped up the whole of it.