THE PERSONAL ENEMIES OF MAN 333 



the undergrowth, sets their hearts beating with a dread sense of 

 danger. The only security they feel is in numbers. Though the 

 bloodthirsty monster is perhaps reposing with the remains of his 

 last victim miles away, the terror he inspires is always present to 

 every one throughout his domain. The rapidity and uncertainty 

 of a man-eater's movements form the chief elements of the dread 

 he causes. His name is in every one's mouth; his daring, ferocity, 

 and appalling appearance are represented with true Eastern exag- 

 geration ; and until some European sportsman, perhaps after days 

 or weeks of pursuit, lays him low, thousands live in fear day and 

 night. Bold man-eaters have been known to enter a village and 

 carry off a victim from the first open hut. Having lived in a 

 tract so circumstanced until I shot the fiend that possessed it, and 

 having myself felt something of the grim dread that had taken 

 hold of the country-side, where ordinary rambling about the 

 jungles, and even sitting outside the tent after dark except with 

 a large fire, or moving from the encampment without an escort, 

 were unsafe, I could realize the feelings of relief and thankfulness 

 so earnestly expressed by the poor ryots when I shot the Jezebel 

 that had held sway over them so long. The man-eater is often 

 an old tiger (more frequently a tigress), or an animal that, through 

 having been wounded or otherwise hurt, has been unable to pro- 

 cure its usual food, and takes to this means of subsistence." In a 

 recent article (in The Sports of the World) Lieutenant-general Sir 

 Montagu G. Gerard thus speaks on this subject: "Man-eaters 

 are very rare indeed, and . . . probably become so accidentally. 

 The accepted belief that they are necessarily mangy is a myth; it 

 may be the cause, not the effect. For whatever reason, they seem 

 to acquire preternatural cunning, and natives believe that the soul 

 of a man is imprisoned within them. I once spent a fortnight 

 following one, who never during that time killed within ten miles 

 of her last victim. ... A former colonel of the C.I. Horse, the 

 most celebrated tiger slayer of thirty years back, killed an excep- 

 tionally mischievous one, which in a year had accounted for 

 eighty-seven known victims. ... I have only killed four un- 

 doubted ones, whose victims ranged from thirty-three to about a 

 dozen apiece; but I have known of several others, generally sulky 

 males, who had killed cattle-herds or wood-cutters disturbing 

 them." 



Of other members of the Cat family (Felidae) large enough to 



