150 WILD BEASTS AND THEIR WAYS CHAP. 



seized the dummy driver from his seat upon the rearmost cart, and 

 dragged the unresisting victim towards the jungle ! 



Nothing could have been better planned, but one chance had 

 been forgotten, which was necessary to success. No sooner had 

 the tiger roared, and bounded upon the cart, than the affrighted 

 bullocks, terrified by the dreadful sound, at once stampeded off the 

 road, and went full gallop across country, followed by Mr. Duff's 

 bullocks in the wildest panic. It was impossible to fire, and after 

 a few seconds of desperate chariot race, both carts capsized among 

 the numerous small nullahs of the broken ground, where bullocks 

 and vehicles lay in superlative confusion ; the victorious man-eater 

 was left to enjoy rather a dry meal of a straw-stuffed carter, instead 

 of a juicy native which he had expected. 



This was a disappointment to all parties concerned, except the 

 dummy driver, who was of course unmoved by the failure of the 

 arrangement. 



The story is thoroughly authenticated, and has been told to me 

 by the Commissioner of the district exactly as I have described it. 

 The tiger was subsequently killed by a native shikari, when watch- 

 ing from a tree over a tied buffalo. 



Although the tiger as a " man-eater " is a terrible scourge, and 

 frequently inflicts incredible loss upon the population of a district, 

 there are tigers in existence which would never attack a human 

 being, although they exist upon the cattle of the villages, and have 

 every opportunity of seizing women and children in their immediate 

 neighbourhood. About nine years ago there was a well-known 

 animal of this character at a place called Bhundra in the Jubbulpur 

 district, which was supposed to have killed upwards of 500 of the 

 natives' cattle. This was a peculiarly large tiger, but so harmless 

 to man that he was regarded merely in the light of a cattle-lifter, 

 and neither woman nor child dreaded its appearance. The natives 

 assured me that during fourteen years it had been the common 

 object of pursuit, both by officers, civilians, and by their own 

 shikaris, but as the tiger was possessed by the devil it was quite 

 impossible to destroy it. This possession by an evil spirit is a 

 common belief, and in this instance the people spoke of it as a 

 matter of course that admitted of no argument ; they assured me 

 that the tiger was frequently met by the natives, and that it 

 invariably passed them in a friendly manner without the slightest 

 demonstration of hostility, but that it took away a cow or bullock 

 in the most regular manner every fourth day. It varied its atten- 

 tions, and having killed a few head of cattle belonging to one 

 village, it would change the locality for a week or two, and take 



