THE KODERMA MAN-EATER. 299 



As golas grew more wary and kept out of his haunts, 

 he tried a chamar or two. He has now taken to 

 agragrees (iron smelters and charcoal-burners), and 

 his last six kills have been among these men ; hence 

 Jiban's appeal to me. Jiban's ideas of the power 

 of the Government are great. By mere beat of 

 drum the tiger can be debarred from slaying 

 charcoal-burners. Apparently the report that this 

 man-eater is of defective vision is correct, as only 

 a few days ago, some coolies were returning from 

 work at dusk, and one of the women had a bundle 

 of wood on her head. The tiger sprang out of a 

 thicket at the woman and seized the bundle of wood, 

 with which he went crashing down the khud, growl- 

 ing ferociously the while. The coolies all bolted 

 while the tiger was engaged with this novel prey, 

 and no damage was done. One more instance of 

 this brute's cunning. About six weeks ago a wood- 

 cutter was engaged felling a semul tree within a 

 hundred yards of the village of Pardiah. The time 

 was about midday, and his wife usually took him 

 a drink of water at this hour. On arrival at the 

 tree she found only his axe, and noticed a few drops 

 of blood on the ground. She raised an alarm, and 

 the whole of the men employed at the mines turned 

 out with drums, empty kerosine tins, spears, lathis, 

 etc. All the European employes turned out also 

 with guns. The whole of the forest near the village 

 was beaten over, but no signs of the brute or his 

 kill were found. Next day some vultures were seen 

 alighting in a field in the immediate vicinity of 

 the village. This was searched, and the poor 



