72 Anecdotal Natural History. 



Old tigers, who cannot even destroy cattle, are 

 tolerably sure to become man-eaters. Fortunately for 

 ihe natives, European huntsmen never allow a man- 

 eater to live. It is even necessary to destroy every 

 cub of a man-eater, for if a tiger, no matter how young, 

 has once tasted human flesh, it becomes at once a man- 

 eater. 



The fur of such an animal is never worth anything 

 in a pecuniary point of view, as it is almost always 

 mangy, bald in patches, dingy in hue, and" never 

 exhibits the rich, warm colouring of the healthy 

 fur. 



So great is the terror of the natives at the mere pre- 

 sence of a man-eater, that they seem quite demoralized. 

 They never venture out at night, and even by day 

 will only dare to move in large bodies, all being 

 heavily armed and accompanied by the beating of 

 drums and the shouts of men, the firing of shots, 

 and the glare of flaming torches. 



A single man-eater has been known to kill a hun- 

 dred human beings in a single year, and to put a stop to 

 traffic in a triangular district measuring from thirty to 

 forty miles on each side. Many villages were wholly 

 deserted, and others in which the inhabitants remained, 

 tvere surrounded with strong palisades. 



The claws of the tiger form most terrible weapons, 

 being sickle-shaped, and as sharp as a knife. As is 

 the case in the lion, the claws seem to possess some 

 poisonous influence apart from the actual wound, for, 

 i:i many cases, even a slight scratch has been pro- 

 ductive of lockjaw, followed rapidly by death. One 

 hunter, of many years' experience, states that he has 

 never known a patient to die from the effects of a 

 wound caused by the tiger's claws without suffering 

 from lockjaw previous to death. 



Naturally, no pains are spared to exterminate so 



