TIGER SLAYER BY ORDER 



latter will take the bait at once, they know the result must 

 be that the suspected jungle, or jungles, will be thoroughly 

 beaten out by beaters, who, incidentally, will pocket two 

 annas a piece, hence should the animal be there it will be 

 either killed or driven off and thus relieve the villagers of 

 its presence, or if the beat should prove a blank, set their 

 minds at rest by thus proving that no dangerous animal 

 is there. 



Such then are some of the traps into which the embryonic 

 Indian sportsman, unfamiliar with India and her people, is 

 likely to fall and generally does, until personal experiences 

 such as the one I have described have taught him to estimate 

 the proper value of any information he receives before 

 deciding to act on it. But even if after he has done this 

 he goes out to the spot only to find that the information 

 was false or grossly exaggerated, he must be very careful 

 to resist the temptation — often a very strong one — ^to deal 

 harshly with the informant, for it must be remembered 

 that in the pursuit of big game, especially leopards and 

 tigers, everything depends on the receipt of prompt in- 

 formation of " kills," and as these are usually of village 

 cattle, it is the villagers only who can supply this informa- 

 tion. 



Hence it is obviously necessary for the sportsman to 

 cultivate friendly relationships with these men and to gain 

 their confidence, which can best be done by kind treatment, 

 generally and by always rewarding liberally any individual 

 who brings in accurate information. 



Money thus expended will in the end be found to have 

 been well spent, for in India, as I have said before, news is 

 rapidly transmitted, thus the name of a sahib who pays 

 rewards will soon be spread abroad, and men will travel 

 many miles to bring him information of a kill or other 

 evidence of a tiger or leopard's presence, of which he could 

 not otherwise have heard. 



Nor would he be necessarily out of pocket in paying 

 for this information, as there is a Government reward for 

 the destruction of such animals which he can claim by 

 producing the head and skin. The sums vary in amount 

 in different provinces, but are always on a fairly liberal 

 scale, hence amply sufficient for the informer who is usually 

 14 



