BULLET AND SHOT 



I received the news upon the third day, and at 

 once went to the spot. The police inquiry had 

 been held, and the remains removed before I 

 arrived. On my way to the scene of the tragedy 

 I saw the deeply imprinted pugs of the tiger lead- 

 ing all down the path towards tbe village for a long 

 distance, there having been heavy rain during the 

 night succeeding the kill. At the spot itself, there 

 was little to be seen beyond the said pugs leading 

 down the road, and a few small pieces of bone ; but 

 upon further search, I found what the police and 

 villagers had failed to find, viz., the entrails of the 

 boy collected in a little heap, and footprints close 

 by showing where the tiger had lain down in the 

 jungle to eat his victim, within thirty yards or so 

 of the path. I tried some fruitless beats for this 

 tiger, but he had moved off, and I failed to en- 

 counter him. 



Recently, while on the Travancore hills, I heard 

 of no less than two man-eaters in different, though 

 far distant parts of that large extent of country. 

 No doubt those tigers were driven to man-eating 

 owing to the terrible destruction of game in those 

 hills by natives, and the consequent scarcity of their 

 natural food. 



I have, however, in the whole of Southern India, 

 never heard of a man-eater of such calibre as a 

 small tigress shot many years ago by my god- 

 father, the late Mr. ^Eneas Mackintosh, who re- 

 sided at that time in Purneah. This beast had 

 been man-eating for about a year, and during this 

 period she had, it was computed, killed no less 



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