300 A NATIVE WAG. 



there await my return, we cast ahead towards the hills, and again hit off 

 the trail. After several hours' work, finding tracks now and then in the 

 sandy beds of ravines, but all leading to a country wliere the cover was 

 continuous, we were obliged to give it up as useless, as we could neither 

 keep tlie trail nor have done anything towards driving such extensive 

 cover had we even found where the tigress lay hidden. We were forced 

 reluctantly to return, consoling ourselves with the hope of finding her in 

 more favourable country soon, and vo^ving to leave no stone unturned till 

 we bagged her. It had become quite a point of honour with the trackers ; 

 we had never been played such successful tricks before by any animal, and 

 they said the tigress was " throwing dirt into their mouths." 



We got back to the temple late in the afternoon ; here I found the 

 elephant and several of my people, and a man with a note from Captain C, 

 of the Kevenue Survey, who was in camp a few miles from Morlay. I 

 started the messenger back with a reply, and though we were pretty certain 

 the man-eater was miles away, it was a nervous job for him to get through 

 the jungle tiU he reached open country on the far side. He left us, already 

 casting furtive glances around him, to the great amusement of my men 

 (who had not the job to do themselves !). Before he had got far, one of 

 them, wlio was a bit of a humorist, called him back. The man came, 

 when the wag, assuming a concerned air, said : " You know, keep a good look- 

 out ahead of you — never mind the rear ; if a tiger seizes a man from behind, 

 what could any of us do ? but, you know, you can see Mr if she is coming for 

 you from in front, and you might try a run for it. Good-bye! Koombappali 

 be with you ! Dont delay ; it's rather late as it is ! " The poor villager 

 grinned painfully at the joke, which the rest enjoyed immensely ; but I saw 

 he was in such a fright — and reflected that, with the uncertainty of her class, 

 the tigress might as likely be near as far away — that I sent half-a-dozen men 

 (the joker amongst them) to see him safely into the cultivated country on 

 the other side. 



Shortly after this, work took me to Goondulpet, twenty-five miles from 

 Morlay, on the Neilgherry road, and I returned on the 14th January 1874. 

 As I rode into camp about mid-day the trackers were waiting for me, and 

 informed me that they had heard the " deatli-cry " raised at a small vilhige 

 called Bussavanpoor below the Bamasamoodrum lake, and some two miles 

 from Morlay, that morning ; and that on inquiry they found a woman had 

 been carried off by the man-eater out of tlie village during the night, but 

 that they had not followed the tracks, as I was not with them. ]]ussavan- 

 poor was a small hamlet situated in the middle of open rice-fields, then 

 bare as the crop had been cut. There was no jungle to cover the man- 



