54 WILD SPORTS OF BURMA AND ASSAM 



body of an elephant he had shot five days before. And as for 

 the legend that man-eaters are old mangy brutes who take to 

 homicidal practices when they are unable to pull down game 

 or cattle, and that they are sans teeth, sans vigour, sans every- 

 thing but hunger, it is 'a myth. I have known them shot as 

 sleek as a well-cared-for cat, young, active, and vicious, and as 

 portions of the cloth of the victim slain were taken out of him, 

 there could be no mistake as to his identity. 



Occasionally white tigers are met with I saw a magnificent 

 skin of one at Edwin Ward's in Wimpole Street; and Mr. 

 Shadwell, Assistant Commissioner in the Cossyah and Jynteah 

 hills, also had two skins quite white. I have also heard of one 

 black tiger having been killed. Some have coats far more 

 fulvous than others ; a few, greatly prized for their rarity, have 

 double stripes, or very nearly double. 



Tigers have a wonderful knack of hiding themselves. I have 

 known one to be in a bush which we passed quite close and 

 unseen, although it was so bare that one would have thought 

 a hare could not have been in it unobserved. Man-eaters, as 

 a rule, are probably more cowardly than the cattle-lifters, but 

 occasionally they are the very reverse. Witness the following, 

 as related by Colonel McMaster, who was at that time Adjutant 

 of his regiment, and a bold, successful sportsman, and good 

 naturalist, whether with the rifle or the spear or pen : 



"The 36th Regiment was en route from Samulcottah to 

 Berhampore in the Northern Sircars, and was approaching 

 Tonee. An officer's servant, who with the men's kit had, as 

 is often the case, preceded the corps to the next encamping 

 ground, was just at dusk and close to the mess-guard 

 carried off the high-road by a tiger ; an infant, then about 

 eighteen months old, which he had in his arms when he was 

 seized, was quite unhurt in the awful rush that took place. 

 It would be interesting to know what effect the recollection of 

 the scene may have had on the child in after life. On hearing 

 of the tragedy next day, when we reached our encamping 

 ground, three of us went back to the spot, about three miles 

 off, to try and recover the body. Except that we made our 

 way in Indian file through thick thorny bushes, under which 

 we had to creep sometimes on hands and knees, the trail- 

 marked with fragments of clothes, the cap, keys, purse, blood 



