246 Wild Beasts 



and was estimated to have devoured over a hundred human 

 beings. One of these roads was the main outlet from the 

 Be" tul teak forests, towards the railway under construction 

 in the Harbada valley ; and the work of the sleeper-con- 

 tractors was completely at a stand-still, owing to the 

 ravages of this brute. He occupied regularly a large 

 triangle of country between the rivers Moran and Ganjal ; 

 occasionally making a tour of destruction much further to 

 the east and west, and striking terror into a breadth of not 

 less than thirty or forty miles. It was therefore supposed 

 that the devastation was caused by more than one animal ; 

 and we thought we had disposed of one of these early in 

 April, when we killed a very cunning old tiger of evil 

 repute after several days' severe hunting. But I am now 

 certain that the one I destroyed subsequently was the real 

 malefactor, since killing again commenced after we 

 had left, and all loss of human life did not cease till the 

 day I finally disposed of him. 



" He had not been heard of for a week or two when I 

 came into his country, and pitched my camp in a splendid 

 mango grove near the large village of Lokartalae, on the 

 Moran River. 



" A few days of lazy existence in this microcosm of a 

 grove passed not unpleasantly. ... In the mean time I 

 was regaled with stories of the man-eater of his fearful 

 size and appearance, with belly pendent to the ground, and 

 white moon on the top of his forehead ; his pork-butcher- 

 like method of detaining a party of travellers while he 

 rolled himself in the sand, and at last came up and in- 

 spected them all round, selecting the fattest ; his power of 



