They are strongly attracted by the peculiar odour which accompanies small-pox.  The reluctance of the natives to submit themselves or their children to vaccination exposes the island to frightful visitations of this disease; and in the villages in the interior it is usual on such occasions to erect huts in the jungle to serve as temporary hospitals.  Towards these the leopards are certain to be allured; and the medical officers are obliged to resort to increased precautions in consequence.  On one occasion being in the mountains near Kandy, a messenger despatched to me through the jungle excused his delay by stating that a “cheetah” had seated itself in the only practicable path, and remained quietly licking its fore paws and rubbing them over its face, till he was forced to drive it, with stones, into the forest.

Major Skinner, who for upwards of forty years has had occasion to live almost constantly in the interior, occupied in the prosecution of surveys and the construction of roads, is strongly of opinion that towards man the disposition of the leopard is essentially pacific, and that, when discovered, its natural impulse is to effect its escape.  In illustration of this, I insert an extract from one of his letters, which describes an adventure highly characteristic of this instinctive timidity.

“On the occasion of one of my visits to Adam’s Peak in the prosecution of my military reconnoissances of the mountain, zone, I fixed on a pretty little patena (i.e. meadow) in the midst of an extensive and dense forest in the southern segment of the Peak Range, as a favourable spot for operations.  It would have been difficult, after descending from the cone of the peak, to have found one’s way to this point, in the midst of so vast a wilderness of trees, had not long experience assured me that good game tracks would be found leading to it, and by one of them I reached it.  It was in the afternoon, just after one of those tropical sun-showers which decorate every branch and blade with its pendant brilliants, and the little patena was covered with game, either driven to the open space by the drippings from the leaves or tempted by the freshness of the pasture:  there were several pairs of elk, the bearded antlered male contrasting finely with his mate; and other varieties of game in a profusion not to be found in any place frequented by man.  It was some time before I could allow them to be disturbed by the rude fall of the axe, in our necessity to establish our bivouac for the night, and they were so unaccustomed to danger, that it was long before they took alarm at our noises.