THE TRAIL OF THE TIGER 277 



passes without adding his mite or raising his voice 

 in supplication to the gods that stand between him 

 and the conjured terrors of the silent, fearsome 

 jungle. If hunters would have success the offer- 

 ing must be a goat, or a bullock that has, perhaps, 

 outlived its usefulness ; to neglect such sacrifice is 

 to forfeit protection in favor of the tiger. On 

 the Brahmapootra I fell among people that even 

 deified the beast in itself; and on the Jamna I 

 heard of a resident " man-eater " which none 

 could kill because it bore the spirit of a one-time 

 victim who directed its attacks and warned it 

 against unfriendly hunters. I heard here of a 

 tigress with forty-five human lives to her credit. 

 Over all the Far East the trails of the tiger are 

 many and devious; but despite notorious reputa- 

 tion and an annual murder record of some length, 

 it is not the unavoidable domestic necessity of 

 foreign India as many, who have never visited that 

 wonderland of color and human interest, appear 

 to think. Indeed only a small percentage of resi- 

 dent white men ever see either a tiger on a snake 

 outside the zoo, for man-eaters do not invade Eng- 

 lish houses, and the fox terrier and the mongoose 

 keep the immediate premises free of snakes. Of 

 the bare-footed and bare-legged jungle-living na- 

 tives, however, it is a different story. They pay 

 the toll. Yet is the native fashioned on such 



