Tiger*Shooting 271 



We set off promptly for the village, Cherla, about 

 four miles off. It consisted of about half a dozen 

 thatched huts with the cowsheds belonging to them ; 

 there were two or three small fields of maize ; and 

 for several hundred yards on either side there was 

 a level and tolerably open expanse of grass, with a 

 few clumps of cardamums, high reeds, and bushes 

 scattered here and there. On approaching the village, 

 we saw the inhabitants clustering on the roofs and 

 at the doors of their houses, and we were assured that 

 the tiger was still somewhere quite close, though it 

 was not known exactly in what part of the cover 

 it then was. The guide who had brought us pointed 

 exultingly to the marks in the grass, which showed 

 unmistakably where the tiger had, in the dusk the 

 evening before, seized upon the poor native within 

 not more than a hundred and fifty yards from his 

 own hut, while a broad trail, by which he had been 

 dragged away, was still visible. 



Afterwards during our beat we had to explore one 

 particularly thick piece of long grass which actually ex- 

 tended to the margin of the village, and in this we found 

 indications showing that the tigers went up to the very 

 doors of the houses ! So much for habit second 

 nature ! People living in the vicinity of tigers soon 

 cease to be afraid of them. 



But this seizure of one of their own number had 

 struck home, and they all seemed paralysed with 

 terror. As usual, the sight of a " Miss Sahib " risking 

 her life in such hazardous adventures filled them 



