THE BANDYPORE MAN-EATER. 287 



barely been away a minute when he came hurrying 

 back, and in a trembling voice told me the tiger 

 was in the river with all his body in the water, 

 and merely his head out. Telling him to hold the 

 bullocks by their nose-strings I got my Westley- 

 Richards, this time careful to see it capped, and 

 stealing to the parapet and peeping over saw, 

 sure enough, the enormous head of a tiger just 

 protruding out of the water. Luckily it was 

 looking in a direction opposite to that from 

 which we had come and the noise of the stream 

 had prevented its hearing our coach- wheels. 

 Taking careful aim at the head I fired, keeping 

 the other barrel ready if I required to use it. 

 With a convulsive movement forward, that brought 

 its body half out of the water, the tiger fell 

 never to rise again, the ball having gone (as 

 I afterwards saw) clean through the brain. Waiting 

 for some time to make sure the beast was not 

 foxing nor merely stunned by the shot, and finding 

 no movement in the body, we unyoked the bullocks 

 and fastened them to a tree, and then went down 

 to examine my kill. It was a magnificent male 

 tiger, one of the largest I have seen, and in splendid 

 condition. There were no marks of mange about 

 the skin to show that it was a man-eater the 

 popular idea being that eating human flesh causes 

 the tiger to become mangy ; this, like many other 

 popular beliefs, is incorrect, as I learned by later 

 experience, some of the finest skins being those of 

 man-eaters. With the greatest difficulty I and 

 my servant were just able to drag the body out 



