CHAPTER XI 

 THE TRAIL OF THE TIGER 



THE tiger stirs imagination as does no other 

 beast of the earth. When the superstitious 

 native of the Far East refers to the dreaded 

 cholera, he speaks awesomely of " the sickness "; 

 and when the craven-hearted Bengali of India, 

 with hushed breath and deprecatory gesture, tells 

 of man or bullock carried off in the night by tiger, 

 he alludes to the marauder deferentially as " the 

 animal." For the tiger is a personage in the 

 Orient to whom the fearful build propitiatory 

 shrines, and whose influence upon the people of 

 the soil is as mysterious as it is potent. The 

 stealth of the great cat's approach, the deliberate 

 savagery of its attack, its swift force, its sudden 

 coming and going— like visitations of lightning- 

 make compelling appeal to the impressionable na- 

 ture of the Indian who fills his jungle with fan- 

 ciful deities to safeguard his path and to divide 

 his tributes. It may be only a little raised plat- 

 form—bearing a soiled, fluttering rag, or a crudely 

 carved, or painted, or even plain stone set up in 

 a clearing under some tree ; but no native traveller 



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