106 THE WILDERNESS AND JUNGLE 



undeniable facts which do not, as we shall see, 

 bear out this theory of the man-eating habit. 

 The first of these is that the majority of man- 

 eaters are females the recognised offender is, in 

 nine cases out of every ten, a tigress. Another 

 fact, even more hostile to this view, is that 

 man-eaters, when at length they meet the 

 doom they so richly deserve, are by no means 

 always old or infirm animals, but may, on the 

 contrary, be in the prime of life and in splendid 

 condition. Abundance of human food might, 

 to some extent, account for their condition, 

 but even such fare could hardly make an old 

 tiger young again, and the man-eater does 

 not, there is good reason to suppose, eat a 

 great many men in the course of each year. 

 A third objection to the old-age theory is the 

 fact of man-eaters being practically unknown 

 in the Nilgiris and in some other parts of 

 India. Yet we must surely assume that tigers 

 grow old in these districts as well as in those 

 infested by man-eaters, even though they do 

 without human food to the end of their lives. 

 It might possibly be shown that the natives 

 of the Nilgiris are more courageous than those 

 elsewhere, or that they do not go about their 

 work unarmed. I have no further information 

 on the subject, but such an explanation would be 

 of great interest. In its absence, we must cer- 

 tainly find the foregoing theory unsatisfactory. 



