36 TEE ROYAL TIGBR OF BENGAL. 



says, " Twice during my residence in Tavoy they 

 ftigers) came into the gate of my compound, broke 

 open the door of the goat-house, and succeeded in 

 killing a goat each time before they could be routed. 

 On another occasion, while sleeping in a jimgle- 

 hamlet, a tiger leaped into a buffalo-pen close by the 

 house and killed a buffalo. They appear to be 

 afraid to encounter man until they have once had a 

 contest with him, when all fear ceases ever after. I 

 have encamped in the jungles often where the tracks 

 of tigers were seen aU around in the morning within 

 a few yards of where myself and people had 

 bivouacked; yet they never ventured an attack. 

 But whenever a tiger has once tasted human blood, 

 it even seeks it in preference to all others. A Bur- 

 man was struck down by a tiger at the head of Tavoy 

 river, and he was seen by his companions to inflict a 

 severe wound on his antagonist with his knife, but 

 was carried off. A few months afterwards a karen 

 was killed by a tiger in a village twenty miles dis- 

 tant, and when the villagers subsequently succeeded 

 in killing the animal, it was found to have been 

 wounded as described by the Burmans. A karen 

 was killed by a tiger near a village a dozen miles 

 east of Tavoy, supposed to be the same beast that 

 had devoured a man ten miles distant a short time 

 previous. This karen was carried off after breakfast 

 in the morning while going out alone to his work in 

 the field, and no less than a week from that time a 

 Burman was struck down by a tiger in the middle 



