306 THE TRAIL OF THE TIGER 



and there. Suddenly, with eyes searching the 

 jungle on one side, they fell to whimpering and 

 twittering and dancing on their feet as though in 

 mortal terror of an impending calamity— then like 

 a flash they were gone. I confidently expected to 

 see a tiger appear, but none came, though I watched 

 patiently and intently throughout the long night. 



My most serious experience with a tiger hap- 

 pened in Sumatra. Uda Prang and I were re- 

 turning from a successful rhinoceros hunt, and 

 came one night to a settlement of half a dozen 

 houses, where the growing of the sago plant and 

 the cutting of rattan to sell Chinese traders, made 

 up the industrial life of the inhabitants. We found 

 the little settlement in a state of great agitation 

 and mourning, for only the night before a young 

 girl had been killed by a tiger or panther, they knew 

 not which, as she gathered herbs not a quarter of 

 a mile away from her home. It was evening when 

 we arrived, but on the morning following, early, 

 we were taken out to where the tragedy had oc- 

 curred, and a bloody bit of dress and the palms of 

 the child's hands and soles of her feet indicated 

 that the beast had made its ghastly feast on the 

 spot. The pug marks seemed to me rather small 

 for a tiger, but Uda said it was a tiger and not a 

 panther. 



Back from the river and behind the open fields 



