Tiger S /looting. 49 



the back of his skull had been beaten in, as with a 

 sledge-hammer. When I turned round the Karumba 

 was making tracks, evidently with a view of giving 

 notice of the misfortune to some villagers, and as I 

 knew if he once got away we should have a posse of 

 men with torches coming for the body, I caught him 

 by the scruff of his neck and told him if he attempted 

 to leave I would break every bone in his body. Now 

 that I had a corpse I meant to utilise it, so I forcibly 

 detained him and made him and the shikarie, collect 

 wood and erect a " machan." The body lay with the 

 face uppermost, and had fallen amid some brush- 

 wood close to a stout sapling, while a fair-sized tree 

 commanded the position from a distance of about 

 fifteen yards. There was fortunately a good moon, so 

 soon before dusk we climbed into our perch, the villager 

 muttering that it was sacrilege we were guilty of, and 

 that surely the corpse would arise and slay us. Finally 

 I procured silence by telling the men, if they made 

 the least noise, I would tie them up as living bait. 

 It was a gruesome sight, watching that dead body as 

 the moon shone on its face, exaggerating every feature. 

 I must own, were it not that I considered it a duty to 

 try and rid the country of that awful infliction, a 

 man-eater, I would even at the last moment have 

 gone back to camp. 



The time went by but slowly. Eleven o'clock 

 arrived ; no appearance of the tiger. Some tall trees 

 cast a shadow over the corpse, but I could not take 

 my eyes off that poor, thin, ghastly upturned face, when, 

 oh, horror ! one eye opened, then the other ; soon after 

 an arm moved, succeeded by a shiver of the body. 

 Was it going to rise and kill us as the men asserted ? 



E 



