120 SPORT IN BENGAL. 



four or five days from the scene of their last exploit. These 

 tigers not only killed or drove away every inhabitant of 

 Prannu'gger, but they closed for years about six miles of the 

 high road to Thakoorgaon, compelling travellers, even in the 

 day time, to make a detour by the open plain one side or 

 the other. 



In their nightly wanderings, tigers will stray sometimes 

 into the most unlikely places, as the middle of a station, a 

 bazaar, or a house in the midst of a large village ; surprised 

 by daylight, when far away from their usual retreats, they 

 rarely display any desire for mischief and slaughter, and if 

 unmolested, will gently settle down in a field of grain, a 

 drain well covered with thorns or grass, or the bush-lined 

 banks of a tank, till nightfall again allows them to depart 

 unseen, except peradventure by the watchful village curs. 



Sitting at tiffin one Sunday, when our Chaplain chanced 

 to be our guest, in the course of one of his quarterly visi- 

 tations to Noakholly, we received intelligence of a " bagh " 

 being in the middle of a large village across the river. The 

 Padre was the only one disposed to accompany me, and re- 

 luctantly abandoned the adventure, on my expressing my 

 inability to guarantee his return in good time for the evening 

 service; accordingly I rode out alone, expecting to find a 

 panther only, that animal being somewhat common around 

 the station. On reaching a considerable village four miles 

 away, to which my guides led me, it was seen to be quite 

 deserted by its inhabitants, who were all out in the fields, in 

 much alarm and excitement. 



The " bagh " when first observed early that morning, was 

 quietly stalking over the open ground, but on being shouted 

 at, and annoyed by the barking of the village curs, had 

 turned into the village, attracted by the thick groves of 

 bamboos, cocoa, and areca nut trees, which in that district in- 

 variably surround and shade the homesteads of the people ; 

 and then bewildered by the endless houses and gardens, it had 

 squatted down in the very centre, frightening the inhabitants 

 out of their houses. 



