CHAPTER XIV. 



A TIGER HUNT. 



Tigers. — The Game-killer. —The Cattle-lifter.— The Man-eater.— Reign of Ter- 

 ror. — Eight Hundred Victims Annually. — Modes of Tiger-hunting. — How- 

 dah Shooting. — Machan Shooting. — Shooting on Foot. — An Impromptu 

 Tiger hunt.— The Trail.— A Light " Battery."— The Game Overhauled.— 

 A Good Shot. — Death of a Superb "Game-killer." — Dimensions and 

 Weight. — A Proud Moment. — Struggle to Preserve the Skin. 



According to tbeii* habits in procuring tbeir food, tigers are divided 

 by tbe people of India into three classes. 



The least harmful is the " game-killer," who lives in tbe hills 

 and dense forests vphere wild game is abundant, and leads the life 

 of a bold, honest hunter. He feeds chiefly upon deer and wild hog, 

 and so long as he remains a game-kiUer he is a real blessing to the 

 poor ryots, who have hard work to protect their crops from the 

 droves of deer and wild hog which sally forth from the jungle at 

 nightfall to depredate upon them. But the trouble is, there is no 

 knowing when this striped sportsman will take it into bis head to 

 try bis teeth and claws on cattle or men : in fact, he is not to be 

 trusted for a moment. 



The "cattle-lifter" is a big, fat, lazy thief, too indolent to pull 

 down fleet-footed wild animals, who prowls around the villages after 

 nightfall, or the edge of the jungle where the cattle are herded, and 

 kiUs a bullock every four or five days. The annual loss to tbe cat- 

 tle owners whose herds are thus preyed upon by the cattle-lifter, is 

 very great for poor natives to bear, since each tiger destroys in a 

 year, cattle worth at least four hundred dollars. 



But even the most greedy cattle-lifter sinks into insignificance 

 in the presence of the fierce "man-eater," the scourge and terror 

 of the timid and defenceless natives. Until a tiger has once had 

 bis fangs in human flesh, be has an instinctive fear of man, and un- 

 less attacked and brought to bay will nearly always retreat from 

 his presence. But with his first taste of human blood that fear 



