

Tiger Shooting. 33 



my nipples, and had both barrels full cocked. Out 

 sprang a tigress, down went Mong-Oo, my outstretched 

 rifle exploded, and I was thrown to the ground, the 

 beast falling just beyond me in a heap. Her chest 

 had come into contact with the muzzle of my rifle, 

 she left the marks of her fangs on the barrels, but 

 the bullets had done their work, passing clean through 

 the heart into the abdomen, and breaking the spine 

 close to the loins. After this there was some 

 hesitation on the part of Karens to advance through 

 the long grass, and they began to scatter, but re-col- 

 lecting them together, I placed myself at their head. 

 With half-a-dozen tom-toms and four cholera horns 

 beating and blowing, we made a din which, if it did 

 not frighten a tiger into fits, would certainly render 

 him deaf for some considerable time ! Soon we came 

 upon the poor girl, stone dead, but otherwise un- 

 touched. After the body was removed, the beat was 

 continued on till within fifty yards of the fallen trunk, 

 when cubs were found, which the Karens knocked 

 on the head. I halted at their village that day, got 

 the people to collect a quantity of brushwood ''and 

 dry grass, and about 3 P.M., set the grass in the 

 ravine again on fire. This time it burnt merrily and 

 was not extinguished till midnight, when the dew 

 put it out. Still the conflagration had cleared the 

 nullah for several miles, and the villagers ran little 

 or no risk of wild animals visiting them, until the 

 cover had regrown. I fancy these tigers had wandered 

 to where we found them by mistake. The female 

 had been confined only a few days, and as they 

 could find no game, they had taken to homicidal 

 practices. 



D 



