208 



11 sneaks, mind you, and not to be treated with the eon tempt, we 

 " show to the human animal. Man-eaters are different ; they have 

 " found out their own strength and man's weakness, and yet even 

 " after they have made this great discovery, what sneaks they are ! 

 " How seldom you hear of a shikaree with a gun being killed by 

 " them, it is generally some unfortunate woman or laden cooly 

 " almost invariably their victim is taken unawares. Thank good- 

 " ness, though there are a good many tigers on these hills, we 

 " seldom hear of a man-eater, and take my word for it, ladies and 

 " gentlemen present or to come, the tigers here are perfectly harm- 

 " less as far as you are concerned, if you leave them alone. 

 " Should you meet one lying in the road or path- way, he will 

 " make way for you he may like an ill-mannered brute that he 

 " is, do it sulkily, giving an ugly growl, and, perhaps, showing his 

 " long horrid yellow teeth ; but he will not attempt to attack you ; 

 " he is quite as much afraid of you as you can possibly be of him ; 

 " let him get out of your way, and don't attempt to get out of his, 

 " for like all sneaks, should he see that you are really afraid of 

 "him, he might just possibly take advantage of it! There are 

 " two circumstances under which there may be real danger : one, 

 " coming on a very hungry tiger that has just killed an animal ; 

 " and the other, a tigress with very young cubs. But, I believe, a 

 " bold and determined front will nrake even these get out of the 

 " way. In the former case, wild dogs can do it at all events. 



I am, your's faithfully, 



A DEER STALKER." 



The following extract from an account of a run with the Madras 

 fox hounds, which, to avoid the deadly heat of the plains of the 

 Carnatic during the summer, were sent to Ootacamund at the close 

 of our last hunting season, must be well known to many of my 

 friends ; but, as it is apropos of what " A deer stalker" has said, 

 I give it. It originally appeared, in full, in the South of India 

 Observer of the 24th July, afterwards in The Field of the 24th 

 September, page 209, and also in the Illustrated London News of 

 the 9th October 1869, page 353. In the last paper, there is a 

 spirited sketch of the strange chase, evidently taken from a still 



