THE INDIAN POACHER AND HIS WAYS 249 



arrow is shot into its side, with the result that its death is 

 certain provided the poison is virulent enough. The bows 

 used are of tremendous strength and size, and success is 

 achieved on occasions, but the trap is by no means a 

 certainty. The tiger sometimes becomes suspicious and 

 quits the path before reaching the stretched line, or may 

 even have the luck to walk over it without springing the 

 arrow. The plan is more especially employed to endeavour 

 to get rid of a man-eater or a cattle-lifter who has taken a 

 higher percentage of the cattle than even the lazy jungle 

 folk can suffer with equanimity. Ordinarily these men are 

 far too lazy to take the trouble to set traps to kill tiger. 

 This form of snare is very dangerous. Of course all the 

 villagers in the vicinity are aware that it has been set but 

 this does not apply to the casual passer-by. The villagers 

 may forget to warn him or may not know of his presence, 

 a stranger being a rarity perhaps in such remote parts. 

 I believe this form of trap has, in fact, been prohibited, 

 though it was in use when I first went to Chota Nagpur. 



LEOPARD OR PANTHER 



The Trap-door Cage. The panther is amongst the 

 wariest and cutest of the jungle animals so wary and so 

 cute that the possibility of its being practicable to catch him 

 in a cage would appear to be remote to those acquainted 

 with one side of his character only. But the native of India 

 alongside of whom he lives, and of whose stock in goats and 

 dogs he is inordinately fond, is also possessed of very 

 considerable ingenuity and the feud between the two is now 

 several thousand years old. The leopard's great partiality 

 for the goat is well known to the villager and affords the 

 latter the chance of getting even with the animal. He 

 builds a stout cage with a trap-door provided with stout 

 iron bars and worked by a spring. The cage is set up in a 

 suitable locality in the neighbourhood and a goat tied 

 inside. The trap is in the nature of a sacrifice of old, for the 

 goat is the propitiatory offering to be sacrificed. The 

 apparatus being set the men retire and the goat left alone 

 commences to bleat. The sound attracts the leopard but 

 does not always result in his capture. This latter depends 

 on how hungry he may be and whether hunger or greed will 

 ultimately overcome his excessive bump of cautiousness and 

 cuteness. If the former gets uppermost he enters the cage 



