282 IN THE INDIAN JUNGLE. 



advice as to the repairs of the transit, and was 

 soon in friendly converse with the villagers who 

 crowded round the " Doray " (gentleman). " Had 

 the Daveru heard of the ' pille ' (tiger) 'perun 

 pillee ' (large tiger) which was living on them and 

 on their children, and their cattle ? Poojah (pro- 

 pitiatory ceremonies) was of no avail ; the devil 

 of a tiger had even carried away the poojahree 

 (village priest), and now, no one was safe ; they 

 could not go to the jungle for firewood, and brattees 

 were consequently getting dear. Would the Doray 

 stay a day and try and shoot the brute ; his children 

 (the motley assemblage around) would be grateful 

 for ever/' 



The Doray had nothing better than a six-shooter 

 a kind of travelling companion with which 

 to try conclusions with the monster if met with^ 

 and as he did not like to add himself to the already 

 long list of those the brute had killed and eaten, 

 he, with many expressions of what he would do 

 if he had the weapons, gratefully declined the offers 

 of those who volunteered to lead him to the edge 

 of the forest the tiger haunted, and leave him there. 

 On my return journey to Ooty some eight months 

 after, I again found myself delayed at Bandypore, 

 and this time because the transit drivers refused 

 to drive through the Tippoo Kadu as that portion 

 of the forest was called, as two transit drivers had 

 been carried off from their coaches only a few days 

 before by the man-eating tiger. 



At the bungalow I found Messrs. Kaye and 

 Ward, the Government Tiger Slayers. Kaye I 



