THE MAN-EATERS RETURN. 305 



ing sun, walk from beliiud a rock across the side of the hill, here a hare 

 sheet of blue granite, and come downwards towards the carcass. She halted 

 now and again to look far out into the plain behind us. Was the beast 

 dreaded by thousands, hunted by us so long, and which we had never even 

 seen before, the guilty midnight murderess, really before us ? Could nothing 

 but some untoward failure now avert her fate ? 



I followed her with my rifle so eagerly that Bommay Gouda whispered 

 to me to let her get to the carcass before I fired. When she reached the bul- 

 lock she stooped, and at the same instant I fired at her shoulder, broadside 

 on, with my express. Bommay Gouda could contain himself no longer, and 

 jumped up before I could stop him ; I did so also, but could see no tigress ! 

 It was extraordinary, certainly ; we looked up the hillside, but she was not 

 there. Was she really a devil as all believed, and had she vanished in air ? 

 Just then up went a tail on the far side of the bullock in a convulsive 

 quiver ; she had fallen exactly behind the carcass. I ran along the hill- 

 side to intercept her should she gain her feet ; but it was all right ; she 

 was only opening her mouth in spasmodic gasps, and I settled her. The 

 trackers came up in great glee ; they had seen the tigress come over the 

 summit of the hill and enter the rocks on our side half an hour before 

 we saw her : they were in a large tamarind-tree away in the plain. On 

 examining her we found that she was in milk, which was the first intima- 

 tion we had that she had a cub ; she was in the prime of life and condition, 

 and had no lameness or apparent injury to account for her having taken to 

 man-killing. 



I may here say that we never killed her cub. It was heard calling to 

 its mother for several nights around lyenpoor, but we could not find it in 

 the daytime, and it must have died of starvation, as had it lived we should 

 certainly have encountered it. 



We soon had the tigress padded (after the trackers had beaten her with 

 their slippers and abused her in dreadful terms) ; and as our way to Morlay 

 lay through Hebsoor, a messenger started off in advance with the news ; and 

 before we had gone far we were met by almost the whole community of 

 Hebsoor, with torches and tomtoms, and begged to parade the tigress thi-ough 

 the village. The women and children were delighted, though half terrified, 

 at the sight of her. They had never seen a tiger before, there being no 

 Zoological Gardens handy in India except those of Nature, and the creature 

 was only known as a fearful beast which had eaten papa or mamma or 

 sons or daughters. Soondargowry, the elephant, was fed with cakes, 

 balls of sugar and rice, and plantains by the pleased housewives, and 

 seemed to enjoy herself, though at first the torches and shouts made her 



u 



