A TIGER HUNT. 153 



vanishes forever. His nature changes, and he becomes a man- 

 eater. 



Tigers who prey upon human beings are usually ex-cattle-Ufters, 

 who, from long acquaintance with man have ceased to fear him, and 

 find him the easiest prey to overcome and carry off. A large j^ro- 

 portion of the man-eaters are mangy, superannuated, old tigers or 

 tigi'esses, whose teeth and claws have become blunt with long use, 

 and who find it too great an exertion to kill and drag ofl' bul- 

 locks. 



The presence of a man-eater causes a perfect reign of teiTor in 

 the district which he frequents, which lasts until he is slain. It is 

 almost invariably the case that the brute confines his operations 

 to a few square miles of ten-itory, and perhaps a dozen villages, so 

 that each one becomes a walking scourge whose form, habits, and 

 foot-prints become thoroughly known to the terrified villagers. At 

 first, perhaps, he carries off a herdsman instead of a bullock, by 

 way of experiment, and soon after an unlucky woodcutter at the 

 edge of the jungle shares a similar fate. Finding that he can 

 easily and with perfect safety kill men, he gradually becomes 

 bolder, until finally he enters the villages after nightfall and seizes 

 men, women, and children from off theu* own door-steps. No one 

 is safe save when in his house with the door shut and barred. The 

 herder no longer dares to take his hungry herd to graze in the 

 jungle, and for the woodcutter to go forth to his task in the forest, 

 would be to hterally walk into the jaws of death. 



The man-eater may be seen in the evening near a certain village, 

 and before morning carry off a man from another five miles away. 

 No one can say that he will not be the next ^dctim. When the 

 people go to sleep at night the last thing they think of is the man- 

 eater, and he is first in their thoughts when they awake in the 

 morning. It is a homble feeling to live in constant fear of being 

 suddenly pounced upon by a big, hungry, wild beast that can carry 

 you ofi' in his jaws and eat you up clean at one meal. 



But, thanks to English sportsmen, improved fire-arms and the 

 Hberal rewai'ds offered by the Government, man-eating tigers are 

 now rare compared with what their numbers once were. It is not 

 now possible for a single tigress to cause the desertion of thirteen 

 villages, and throw out of cultivation ^/teen square miles of terri- 

 tory, as once occurred in Central India ; nor for another to kill one 

 hundred and twenty-seven persons before being laid low. And 

 yet, in spite of breech-loading rifles and zealous British sportsmen, 



