THE TIGEE 231 



without firing a shot, I halted to hunt a very large cattle- 

 eating tiger near Chandvel in the Mmar district. This 

 animal was believed by the cowherds to have killed more 

 than a thousand head of cattle ; and one of the best grazing 

 grounds in all that country had been quite abandoned 

 by them in consequence. His haunts lay in a network of 

 ravines that lead down to the Narbada river — ^now included 

 in the Ponasa Eeserved Forest, which I was then exploring. 

 The herds of cattle having been withdrawn from the grassy 

 glades on the banks of the Narbada where he usually preyed 

 on them, he had lately been coming out into the open 

 country, and had been heard for several nights roaming 

 round about the village of Chandvel on the edge of the forest. 

 I found his tracks within a hundred yards of the buffalo 

 pens of the village the morning I arrived ; and a few nights 

 before he had broken into a Banjara encampment a little 

 way off, and kiUed and dragged away a heifer, which he 

 ate within hearing distance of the encampment, charging 

 through the darkness and driving back the Banjaras and 

 their dogs when they tried to interrupt him. I picketed 

 a juicy young buffalo for him the night I arrived, about 

 half a mile from the village where his tracks showed he 

 regularly passed at night. Next morning it was found 

 to have been kiUed and dragged away about a hundred 

 yards to a small dry watercourse ; and, after having been 

 cleaned as scientifically as any butcher could have done 

 it, eaten up all but the head, skin, feet, and one fore-quarter. 

 If his footprints had not already shown him to be an 

 unusually large tiger, this feat of gormandising would have 

 sufficiently done so. We started about ten o'clock on his 

 trail. It was the 12th of April, and a hotter day I never 

 remember. Long before midday the little band of cow- 

 herds and shikaris who accompanied me had most of their 

 wardrobes bound round their heads to keep off the sun; 

 and I looked for a tussle with such a heavy old tiger, long 

 accustomed to drive off the people he met, if we found him 

 well-gorged on such a grilling day as this. We took the 

 track down fully five miles till it entered a long narrow 

 ravine with pools of water at the bottom, and shaded over 

 with a thick cover of trees and bushes. We could not go 



