2 6o IN THE INDIAN JUNGLE. 



just after the women had left the fire and gone to 

 the rope, a large tiger was seen to walk deliberately 

 up to the fire, look about for a little while and 

 then lie down and warm itself. Of course there 

 was a stampede of the workpeople at the surface, 

 and the miner in charge of the night-shift was 

 informed of the occurrence. He went to the 

 shaft accompanied by several men, and there saw 

 the tiger lying by the fire. The men shouted 

 and the tiger got up and walked quietly off among 

 the neighbouring bushes. I was told of the circum- 

 stance next day but was not inclined to credit it ; 

 however, I lent my gun to the night-shift man, 

 and told him not to fire at the tiger if it came again 

 but merely to shout and discharge the gun in the 

 air to scare the beast. The tiger did not turn 

 up next night, nor for several following nights, 

 but it did turn up at irregular intervals, and in 

 time the coolies got used to its coming and would 

 go on with their work as usual. This tiger was 

 well known to the inhabitants of several villages 

 around, and one man claimed relationship with it. 

 He seriously told me it was his great-uncle, who 

 was the gowala (cattle herd) of the Tentudee village 

 some years ago. In his time tigers were common 

 in those parts, and carried away numbers of cattle 

 and occasionally human beings. So great was the 

 loss of cattle that the villagers stopped the usual 

 allowance of paddy given to the village herdsman, 

 as they said he was careless and allowed the cattle 

 to stray, so that tigers could easily seize them. 

 His great-uncle was nearly starved by this stoppage 



