October 16, 1885.] 



SCIENCE. 



345 



and escape the knowledge of the authorities. It 

 must be remembered also that the records of the 

 government include only the cases occurring in 

 British India, wliile there is no record whatever of 

 the mortaUty from these causes in the independent 

 states hke Jeypoor, Gwahor, Rewah and many 

 others, which are governed by independent ra- 

 jahs or princes. The British system of dealing 

 with wild beasts and harmful reptiles has not yet 

 been introduced into these large districts ; and the 

 natives do not encourage by premiums and re- 

 wards the extermination of tigers, panthers, and 

 various cat-Uke animals, as they do that of cobras 

 and other poisonous snakes ; whereas in British 

 India their destruction has become a trade and 

 means of support. Accordingly it happens that 

 in the more distant parts of India which are not 

 yet under British rule, the mortality from these 

 causes is about as great as it was before the Brit- 

 ish supremacy over India. 



Among the animals so destructive of human 

 life, the tiger natm-ally stands first, and the report 

 of 1883 lays to his charge not less than 985 deaths; 

 and yet this animal, if it remains undisturbed and 

 is not uTitated, seldom attacks men. Tigers as a 

 rule are cowardly, and are only too glad to steal 

 away at the approach of man. In earlier times, 

 and this is especially true of British India, when 

 tigers were more numerous than they are at pres- 

 ent, so-called man-eaters were by no means rare 

 among them. They were so named because after 

 once tasting human flesh they were said never 

 after to eat other meat. At that time it was not 

 unusual to hear of unused highways, of large 

 stretches of land left uncultivated, and of aband- 

 oned villages faUing into ruins, because the rav- 

 ages of this fearful animal drove away the inhabit- 

 ants. To-day these man-eaters are almost exter- 

 minated ; if one is heard of, the attention of the 

 authorities is soon drawn to his actions, a hunt is 

 organized, and usually the animal is soon killed by 

 the rifle of a European sportsman or the gun of 

 some private hunter. 



The question naturally arises, if the man-eaters 

 are so rare, how does it happen that in a single 

 year almost a thousand men lose their life from 

 tigers? In the first place it cannot be doubted, 

 although tigers eating only men are now fortu- 

 nately rare, that a tiger if he is surprised in his 

 lair, or comes face to face with a man in his wan- 

 derings, under the impulse of the moment and 

 perhaps more from fear than any other reason, 

 knocks the man down and then goes off. Cases 

 of this kind frequently occur in wooded regions. 

 A tigress with young is especially dangerous, and 

 often attacks unprovoked any one approaching the 

 place where her young are. 



Again, herdsmen, or gwallas, as they are called 

 in Bengalee, frequently lose their lives, if, in 

 their exertions to rescue one of their herd from 

 the claws of the destroyer, they too greatly exfjose 

 themselves. In such cases the tiger is very dan- 

 gerous ; he has perhaps already tasted blood, and 

 will usually give up his booty only after a struggle. 

 If several men, arranged in a compact form, jjress 

 upon him, as, ready to spring, he cowers on the 

 ground behind the bull slain by him, he will 

 often slowly and unwillingly retreat, but often, 

 too, made furious by the sticks and stones thrown 

 at him, and by the cries of his bold antagonists, 

 he will break forth to the attack with enraged cry 

 and blazing eye, and knock down one or more of 

 them. 



The chief cause of death by snake-bite is the 

 almost universal custom among the poorer classes 

 of natives of travelling in the hot season by night, 

 without torches or lanterns. The European in 

 India never does this; if he wanders by night 

 about his bungalow or house, or in his garden, he 

 carries a lantern, on his nightly journeys a burn- 

 ing torch, which snakes are known to avoid. To 

 be sure, cobras are night animals ; by day one sel- 

 dom meets them, but after sunset they come out 

 of their hiding places to seek food. A native 

 usually goes barefooted, or wears a low shoe which 

 protects neither ankle nor leg. In the dark he 

 steps on or pushes against a poisonous snake, is 

 bitten, or rather struck at, and probably by day- 

 break lies dead at the side of the road. 



The same careless custom of wandering after 

 sunset through jungles which are inhabited by 

 wild beasts of all kinds, is, although in less degree, 

 a constant source of danger only too frequently 

 involving death. As already remarked, a tiger, if 

 he is left undisturbed, seldom attacks man in the 

 daytime, but much oftener, if unprovoked, creeps 

 away with an angry growl. This rule does not 

 apply to encounters by night. AU rapacious ani- 

 mals go at that time for prey, and appear to be 

 fuUy conscious of their advantage over man in 

 their sharper vision adapted to the thick darkness 

 of night. Consequently there is for the traveller 

 not only the greater probability of meeting dan- 

 gerous beasts of prey if he traverses the forests by 

 night, but the tiger and the other rapacious ani- 

 mals of the forest are then bolder and more to be 

 feared ; and although the tiger is by nature cow- 

 ardly, yet under the protection of the darkness 

 and the impulse of hunger, the sound of human 

 voices in the stillness of the night may attract him 

 nearer to the road, and a crowd of imarmed 

 natives, passing only a few arms leng-ths from his 

 lurking place, may arouse stiU further his wicked 

 instinct. If the temptation prove too great, with 



