TIGER SLAYER BY ORDER 



grip, promptly ran to his assistance, and though unarmed, 

 a tiffin basket he was carrying being his only weapon, 

 actually grappled with the tiger, trying to drag him off 

 his master's prostrate body. 



The tiger, resenting his interference, instantl)'- turned 

 on him, and, seizing the brave fellow by the throat, killed 

 him on the spot. What happened immediately after this 

 I never heard, but the beast must have made off into the 



jungle, for B was still alive when found, and carried 



to the nearest station, where his wounds were dressed, but 

 he sank rapidly and died the next morning. 



I was not in Khandesh at the time but was told of the 

 sad incident immediately on my retm-n. The devotion 

 of the Goanese to his master was well known, but we were 

 all amazed at the extraordinary courage he had shown, 

 for he must have known he was throwing away his life 

 when embarking on this hopeless struggle with a wounded 

 and infuriated tiger. 



This tiger, I beheve, measured nine feet six inches, 

 rather above the average size, for though I have often 

 heard men talk of tigers twelve feet long, I have never 

 come across any such monsters myself, the largest I ever 

 shot being, as I have said before, only ten feet two 

 inches. 



I have, however, seen tigers nine feet long, whose skins, 

 when fresh, could easily have been stretched to eleven feet or 

 even more, but not without unduly narrowing their breadth 

 and thus impairing the beauty and value of the skin from 

 the trophy point of view\ So much, in fact, depends on 

 how a skin is stretched and cured, and all trophies generally 

 dealt with, that, even at the risk of boring non-sporting 

 readers, I venture to give a short treatise on the subject. 



To begin with, then, all hot-blooded animals, such as 

 lions, tigers, and panthers, should be skinned before the 

 flesh has had time to decompose, to prevent the skin 

 being tainted. When the operator is a native, the process 

 should be personally superintended by the sportsman. 

 The skinning should be done as follows : place the beast 

 on his back, and cut the skin from the lower lip in a direct 

 line to the point of the tail. Then cut from inside of the 

 ball of the hind feet, inside the hocks and up the middle 

 148 



