MAN-EATERS. 1 69 



from me. One can fancy what an advantage this noiseless 

 movement is to the tiger in procuring his prey, and what 

 a terribly dangerous brute he becomes when he makes use 

 of it in stealing on some unfortunate human being. This 

 brings me to say a few words about the man-eaters. Man- 

 eating tigers are usually supposed to be old mangy brutes 

 that have lost their teeth and power, and take to killing 

 human beings as the easiest means of procuring food, but 

 it is often the case that man-eaters are fine healthy young 

 tigers with all their teeth perfect and in good condition. 

 Now supposing a man-eater to be a tigress who has dis- 

 covered how easy it is to take a man at work in the woods, 

 or a woman stooping to get water at a nullah ; her cubs 

 having for some time been living on human flesh, and hav- 

 ing seen their mother kill her victims in this way, would 

 become man-eaters themselves. There was a famous man- 

 eating tigress at the foot of the Nielgherry hills when I 

 was there, which was known to have killed more than two 

 hundred human beings and a large reward was offered for 

 her destruction, but she was so cunning that she baffled all 

 attempts. The jungle was often driven, but no tiger was 

 seen ; cattle were picketed, but no tigress would come near 

 them. At last, a friend of mine happened to be on the spot 

 when this brute had just carried off an unfortunate woman as 

 she was getting water from a stream, he immediately col- 

 lected a few men and took up the track knowing the beast 

 would steal away directly she heard beaters. He started 

 off and making a circuit got some distance ahead ; presently 

 he had the satisfaction of seeing the tigress crossing a dry 

 water course not far from him ; she stood for a moment to 

 listen ; that moment was her last, a well-directed shot behind 



