The manner in which the Chita Pardhis use the hunting leopard (_Felis
jubata_) for catching deer has often been described. [413] The leopard
is caught full-grown by a noose in the manner related above. Its neck
is first clasped in a wooden vice until it is half-strangled, and its
feet are then bound with ropes and a cap slipped over its head. It is
partially starved for a time, and being always fed by the same man,
after a month or so it becomes tame and learns to know its master. It
is then led through villages held by ropes on each side to accustom
it to the presence of human beings. On a hunting party the leopard is
carried on a cart, hooded, and, being approached from down wind, the
deer allow the cart to get fairly close to them. The Indian antelope or
black-buck are the usual quarry, and as these frequent cultivated land,
they regard country carts without suspicion. The hood is then taken off
and the leopard springs forward at the game with extreme velocity,
perhaps exceeding that which any other quadruped possesses. The
accounts given by Jerdon say that for the moment its speed is greater
than that of a race-horse. It cannot maintain this for more than three
or four hundred yards, however, and if in that distance the animal has
not seized its prey, it relinquishes the pursuit and stalks about in
a towering passion. The Pardhis say that when it misses the game the
leopard is as sulky as a human being and sometimes refuses food for a
couple of days. If successful in the pursuit, it seizes the antelope
by the throat; the keeper then comes up, and cutting the animal's
throat collects some of the blood in the wooden ladle with which the
leopard is always fed; this is offered to him, and dropping his hold
he laps it up eagerly, when the hood is cleverly slipped on again.
The conducting of the cheetah from its cage to the chase is by no means
an easy matter. The keeper leads him along, as he would a large dog,
with a chain; and for a time as they scamper over the country the
leopard goes willingly enough; but if anything arrests his attention,
some noise from the forest, some scented trail upon the ground, he
moves more slowly, throws his head aloft and peers savagely round. A
few more minutes perhaps and he would be unmanageable. The keeper,
however, is prepared for the emergency. He holds in his left hand a
cocoanut shell, sprinkled on the inside with salt; and by means of a
handle affixed to the shell he puts it at once over the nose of the
cheetah. The animal licks the salt, loses the scent, forgets the object
which arrested his attention, and is led quietly along again. [414]