TIGERLAND 



and other Europeans and native gentlemen of the district, 

 and the situation fully discussed. 



Finally, at the suggestion of the gentleman to whose 

 notes this narrative is due, a shooting party, on the largest 

 possible scale, was arranged for, early in the month of 

 April, a time when all the sugar cane crops would be cut 

 down and only the natural jungle left. 



The party were to be in readiness on the first day of the 

 month, and would be summoned to meet at the village 

 where the first kill should occur after that date, and beat 

 up all the jungle in its neighbourhood. They had not long 

 to wait, for on the 2nd of April came a report that a boy 

 of twelve had been killed and eaten in the village of 

 A , some six miles north of L . 



By the 4th inst., all the members of the party, accom- 

 panied by some twenty elephants, had assembled at this 

 place, and early on the morning of the 5th, proceeded to 

 beat up all the jungle round about, but without success. 



On the morning of the 6th, no more news of any recent 

 kill having been received, the jungles around some neigh- 

 bouring village were tried, and about ten o'clock, while 

 the beat was still proceeding, an old man came running 

 up with the news that he had just seen the " Man-Eater " 

 in the branches of a large tamarind tree in his village, and 

 had watched it for some time, finally seeing it descend and 

 enter a cane-brake at the foot of the tree he had come to 

 give information. 



The old man's statement was not considered very 

 credible, but as his village was only a mile off, it was 

 thought advisable to go there and test the truth of the 

 story. On the way to the village the old man informed 

 the sportsman that his own wife had been carried off by 

 the Man-Eater a month or two ago, while carrying home 

 a water-pot filled from an adjacent pond. 



That this part of the country was a favourite haunt of 

 the Man-Eater was evident from the number of deserted 

 homesteads from which the owners had fled, owing to some 

 member of the family being carried off. 



When the party reached the village, the old man pointed 

 to a depression of the ground under the tamarind tree, 

 covered with a thorny growth, as the place where the leopard 

 78 



