I70 THE TIGER'S DREAD OF MAN. 



the shoulder rolled her over dead. I saw the skin, it was 

 one of the most beautiful 1 had ever seen, without a spot 

 or blemish. 



As a rule the man eater is more cowardly than the 

 ordinary tiger. It prowls about villages and pounces upon 

 some unfortunate woman or woodcutter ; indeed, I have been 

 told, but I cannot vouch for the truth, that the noise of 

 the woodcutter's axe will attract a man-eating tiger. I have 

 on several occasions been in the neighbourhood of man- 

 eaters ; I never liked it, but felt comparatively safe as I have 

 never known or heard of an instance of any European or 

 native armed and on the alert being attacked. 



Most tigers are great cowards. They are nothing more 

 than gigantic cats and we all know that cats are not very 

 courageous animals ; some cats show more courage than 

 others, so it is with tigers, but they are quite as much afraid 

 of meeting man, as man is of meeting them. A man knows 

 that the tiger could kill him as easily as a cat could kill a 

 mouse, but fortunately most tigers do not know this and have 

 an instinctive dread of man. For the three years I was in 

 charge of the Annamullay Teak forests, I may say I lived, 

 with tigers. I could hardly go out a day without finding 

 fresh foot marks, yet I knew I was comparatively safe, for 

 the karders, a race of hill men, inhabiting the forest, never 

 hesitated to return to their homes on the darkest night, and 

 in no instance had any of them ever been attacked by a 

 tiger. I had, therefore, no fear of returning home through 

 the forest after dark. 



On one occasion, however, rather a creepy feeling came 

 over me. I was forcing my way through some high grass 

 late one evening when on looking down I saw a tiger's foot 



