270 A Sportswoman in India 



clouds soon roofed us in, as black as night, torn every 

 moment by immense, great, jagged cracks of violet 

 lightning, which went right down the black sky from 

 top to bottom, making the river-bed as light as day. 

 (It was seven o'clock, and was just growing dark.) 

 Every rock and stone in it was lit up as though with 

 a search-light. The crashing peals of thunder sug- 

 gested the breaking up of the entire upper world. 

 And then hail and rain began the skies poured sheets 

 of water. A poor native who was going from one 

 village to another was killed. They said that the hail- 

 stones, which were for two or three moments very 

 large, killed him ; but it was more probably merely 

 the fright natives are killed by shock again and 

 again, dying of fright in a hopeless way, for no 

 reason at all. The storm lasted about an hour, at 

 the end of which time the drought-stricken plain was 

 a sheet of water. 



We had just finished breakfast one morning, when 

 some excited natives came running up tr tell us that 

 a man near their village had been mauled by a tiger. 

 We asked for the man. <c Oh ! " they answered, " he 

 is dead quite dead. How can he come before your 

 honour ! " 



The same thing appeared to have happened before, 

 and possibly an old man-eater was in the neighbour- 

 hood. Where a tiger cannot get game or cattle, or 

 when he has become too old to stalk them easily, 

 for some reason or other, he may take to killing 

 natives ; but, unless provoked, he rarely attacks men. 



