

TII ic 



Slraiigr indeed is it that so voracious an animal a: the li^er should lie regarded uilli super- 

 slitioiis reverence ; yet so it is by the natives of Sumatra, according to the most indisputable testimony. 

 Sir T. S. Rallies says : " One of the villagers in the vicinity of Bencoolen told me that his father and 

 grandfather were carried off by tigers j and there is scarcely a family that has not lost some of its 

 members by them. In many places the inhabitants appear to have resigned the dominion to the I i 

 and take few precautions against them, regarding them as sacred. The natives hold the transmigration 

 of souls, and call the tiger their nene that is, grandfather upon the supposition that tho souls of t heir 

 ancestors are dwelling in the tigers. On the banks of one of the rivers, above one hundred p. 

 were devoured by the tigers in a single year. When a tiger enters the village, the people prepare rice 

 and fruits, and place them at the entrance, supposing that the tiger will be pleased with this hospitable 

 reception, and will pass oil without doing them liana." 



The testimony of Lady Raffles is equally decisive : " The coolies, in passing through a forest, came 

 upon a tiger that was crouched upon the path. They immediately stopped, and addressed him in terms 

 of supplication, assuring him that they were poor people, carrying the tiian basar (or great man's 

 luggage), who would be very angry with them if they did not arrive in time, and, therefore, they 

 implored permission to pass quietly, and without molestation. The tiger, being startled at their 

 appearance, got up, and walked quietly into the depths of the forest ; and they came on, perfectly 

 satisfied that it was in consequence of their petition that they passed in safety." 



" It was my lot," says, a traveller, " to be stationed for several years in a remote part of our 

 Indian possessions, adjoining the Mysore frontier, and in the immediate vicinity of the great chain of 

 Western Ghauts. In the pathless thickets of their eternal forests, untrodden by the foot of man, the 

 tigress reared her young, and wandered with her savage partner into the smaller jungles of the plain 

 proving a scourge that drove eveiy feeling of security from the humble dwellings of the wretched 

 inhabitants. 



"In such a country, inhabited by the poorest classes, living in small villages surrounded by jungle, 

 and forced to seek their subsistence among the tigers' haunts, numerous casualties, of course, occurred; 

 and I had frequent opportunities of studying the habits and witnessing the ravages of this formidable 

 animal. Some idea may be formed of the havoc committed by tigers, when I mention, from returns 

 made by Government, that, in one district, three hundred men and five thousand cattle were destroyed 

 during three years. 



"Whilst confined in the forest, the tiger is comparatively harmless. There, feeding principally on 

 deer, he rarely encounters man ; and, when the solitary hunter does meet the grim tyrant of the woods, 

 instinctive fear of the human race makes the stupid monster avoid him. But in the open country he 

 becomes dangerous. Pressed by hunger, he seeks his prey in the neighbourhood of villages, and carries 

 off cattle before the herdsmen's eyes. Still, he rarely ventures to attack man, unless provoked, or 

 urged to desperation. But, under whatever circumstances human blood is first tasted, the spell of fear 

 is for ever broken ; the tiger's nature is changed, he deserts the jungle, and haunts the very doors of 

 his victims. Cattle pass unheeded, but their driver is carried off; and from that time the tiger 

 becomes a man-eater." 



The following are the dreadful particulars which attended the destruction of Mr. Munro, only sou 

 of Sir Heeton Munro, K.B., by a Bengal tiger, as given by an eye-witness of that distressing event, 

 dated from on board the ship Shaw Ardasier, off Saugur Island, December 23rd, 1792 : 



" To describe the awful, horrid, and lamentable accident I have been an eye-witness of, is 

 impossible. Yesterday morning Captain George Downey, Lieutenant Pyefinch, poor Mr. Munro (of 

 the Honourable East India Company's Service), and myself (Captain Consar), went on shore, on 

 Saugur Island, to shoot deer. We saw innumerable tracks of tigers and deer ; but still we wen- 

 induced to pursue our sport, and did so the whole day. About half-past three we sat down on tin- 

 edge of the jungle to eat some cold meat, sent to us from the ship, and had just commenced our meal, 

 when Mr. Pyefinch and a black servant told us there was a fine deer within six yards of us. Captain 

 Downey and I immediately jumped up to take our guns; mine was nearest, and I had but just laid 

 hold of it, when I heard a roar like thunder, and saw an immense royal tiger spring on the unfortunate 

 Munro, who was sitting down; in a moment his head was in the beast's mouth, and lit- rushed into 

 the jungle with him with as much ease as I could lift a kitten, tearing him through the thickest 



