

THE TIGRESS DEAD. 139 



of a monster such as this one was, and thereby saving from 

 a cruel death hundreds of fellow-creatures ? 



We stood for some moments curiously regarding our late 

 dangerous adversary, and then having no measuring tape, we 

 took her length with a rope of twisted grass, from the tip of 

 the nose over the head between the ears, and so along the 

 spine to the tip of the tail pulled out tightly, carefully 

 knotting the mark, and on reaching camp found she measured 

 nine feet two inches. There was nothing remarkable about 

 this tigress, save numerous scars on her head and body. She 

 was rather past the prime of life, and her colouring had com- 

 menced to pale, but she was in full strength and vigour, her 

 age adding experience only to subtlety. Over the head and 

 above the left ear appeared the healed scar left by a wound 

 received from a " dao " or bill-hook, inflicted by some one of 

 her victims as she leapt upon him while occupied in cutting 

 fuel ; this had healed completely, and must have been three 

 or four months old. A second cicatrix appeared on her left 

 paw below the wrist, a third and older wound was on the 

 left side of her face below the eye. These were manifestly 

 received in attacks upon human beings, but there was a 

 longer and deeper cut along her right side, still raw, plainly 

 the work of a boar ; lastly, on removing the skin, a small 

 bullet, a ragged and hammered one, was found imbedded in 

 the muscles of the shoulder, clearly fired into her by some 

 native hunter a year or two before, and doing her as much 

 injury as a wasp sting would do a man ; and whoever he 

 might have been, he was a lucky wight if he were perched 

 high on a tree when that little lump of lead struck her, for 

 if on foot he was a dead man to a certainty. This tigress 

 without being fat was sleek and in good condition, and 

 except that it was rather pale, her skin was without blemish 

 other than the scars already described. 



The woodcutter who had so narrowly escaped a sudden 

 and painful death, had taken to his heels on hearing the first 

 shot followed by the fearful roar of the wounded tigress, 

 and had joined some others working in the fields farther from 



