198 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



the tiger's domain in perfect safety if mounted on the broad 

 back of one of their charges. In reality the buffaloes are 

 sent out to look after the children, and there is no better nurse- 

 maid than an old cow buffalo, who combines perambulator and 

 guardian in one. 



Seldom do these tigers attack a man wantonly, and though 

 when they increase in numbers their system of taxation 

 becomes oppressive, the damage they do is often overrated. 

 Forsyth gives the alarming figures of 3257. to 6507. worth per 

 annum for each tiger, but Sanderson more justly cuts the 

 estimate down to about yo/. He adds, 'The tiger might in 

 turn justly present his little account for services rendered in 

 keeping down wild animals which destroy crops,' and gives 

 many excellent arguments in favour of tigers. 



The gravest charge against cattle-lifters is that they occa- 

 sionally turn man-eaters ; the game-killer, according to 

 Sanderson, never does. As regards man-eaters, the crafty 

 she-devils they are generally tigresses often bring up their 

 cubs to the same way of living. They roam over a considerable 

 tract of country, rarely staying long enough in one place to 

 afford a chance of beating them out like ordinary tigers, killing 

 perhaps on successive days at villages ten miles apart, rendering 

 the whole district helpless from terror. These are the hardest 

 brutes of all to destroy. The sportsman can get no help from 

 the natives, he can gain no knowledge of the brute's conduct to 

 assist him in the pursuit ; ceaseless hunting at all hours and in 

 every method available, hoping that luck may favour him at 

 last, is his only chance of ridding the country of its scourge. 

 Even if he succeeds in killing every tiger he finds in the dis- 

 trict, he can never be sure of having destroyed the real culprit ; 

 he may have driven it away only to return after his departure. 

 There may be more than one man-eater at work, or it may very 

 possibly be a panther that is doing the real damage, which he 

 might refrain from firing at, like Sterndale, for fear of spoiling 

 his chance of a tiger. Unless the beast is caught red-handed, 

 time alone will prove its destruction. 



