THE TTGEE. 271 



the contortions of the tiger. There is no more striking inci- 

 dent in tiger shooting than to witness the fearful and impo- 

 tent rage of a tiger with a broken back. He cannot reach 

 beyond a short circle, but within that limit stones, trees, and 

 the very earth are seized and worried with fearful savageness, 

 and the wretched brute will horribly mangle even his own 

 limbs. It is too ghastly to look on long ; and, though the 

 agony is that of a monster who has caused so much himself, 

 a merciful bullet in the head should quickly end the horrid 

 scene. 



These were regular cattle-eating tigers, and perhaps had 

 not been molesting the monkeys. On another occasion, how- 

 ever, I was much struck with the caution of the monkeys 

 under very trying circumstances. In May, 1864, I had 

 tracked a man-eating tigress into a deep ravine near the 

 village of Pali in the Seoni district. She was not quite a 

 confirmed man-eater, but had killed nine or ten persons in the 

 preceding few months. She had a cub of about six months 

 old with her, and it was when this cub was very young and 

 unable to move about that want of other game had driven her 

 to kill her first human prey. I knew when I entered the 

 ravine that this was her regular haunt ; for, though every bush 

 outside had been stripped of its berries by a colony of 

 monkeys, I saw them perched on the rocks above the ravine 

 wistfully looking down on the bushes at the bottom, which 

 had strewed the ground with their ripened fruit. They 

 accompanied me along the ravine on the top of the rocks, as 

 if perfectly knowing the value of their assistance in getting 

 the tigress and better markers I never had. I should pro- 

 bably have passed out at the top without seeing her, as she 

 was lying close under a shelving bank, but for the profane 

 language of an ancient grey-bearded Hantiman, who posted 



