20 The Carnivora. 
A plea has been advanced for the tiger, on the ground that he 
keeps in check the numerous herbivorous animals which, it is 
said, would otherwise render cultivation almost impossible by their 
numbers. This is evidently the argument of a tiger preserver. 
In the first place, the tiger will not trouble himself to catch wild 
game so long as he can fall upon tame cattle. In the second, 
herbivorous animals are comparatively easily destroyed in 
large numbers by driving, and without the smallest danger; 
while a tiger may evade the utmost efforts of a party of men for 
a month, and very probably injure or kill one of them before he 
,is settled. 
Moreover, the wild species of Bos are, to all intents and pur- 
poses, exempt from his attacks, with the exception of the rare 
instances when he can separate a calf from the herd. The 
enemies to cultivation, then, which he can control, are resolved 
into hogs and deer, animals easily destroyed by proper methods. 
The superstitions of the natives greatly contribute to the 
increase of tigers in districts beyond the usual range of British 
sportsmen. Had a Teutonic peasantry inhabited India it may 
be safely affirmed that they would not have submitted to the 
dominion of the tiger, but would rather have gloried in contests 
with the savage brute, while their bards and minstrels would 
have sung the heroic deeds of the boldest hunstmen. Supersti- 
tion of some kind prevails wherever the tiger has its habitat. 
Sir Stamford Raffles describes this feeling in Sumatra: “One 
of the villagers in the neighbourhood of Bencoolen told me 
that his father and grandfather were carried off by tigers; and 
there is scarcely a family that has not lost some of its members 
by them. In many places the inhabitants appear to have 
resigned dominion to the tigers, and take few precautions 
against them, regarding them as sacred. The natives hold the 
migration of souls, and call the tiger their nene, or grandfather, 
upon the supposition that the souls of their ancestors are 
dwelling in the tigers! On the banks of one of the rivers above 
100 persons were devoured in a single year. When the tigers 
enter a village the people prepare rice and fruits, and place 
