152 
WILD BEASTS AND THEIR WAYS 
CHAP. 
flesh ; or they may have been wounded upon more 
than one occasion and have learnt to regard man as 
a natural enemy ; but more frequently the man-eater 
is a wary old tiger, or more probably a tigress, that, 
having haunted the neighbourhood of villages and 
carried off some unfortunate woman when gathering 
firewood or the wild products of the jungles, has 
discovered that it is far easier to kill a native than to 
hunt for the scarce jungle game; the animal there¬ 
fore adopts the pursuit of man, and seldom attempts 
to molest the natives’ cattle. 
A professed man-eater is the most wary of 
animals, and is very difficult to kill, not because it is 
superior in strength, but through its extreme caution 
and cunning, which renders its discovery a work of long 
labour and patient search. An average native does 
not form a very hearty meal. If a woman, she will 
have more flesh than a man about the buttocks, 
which is the portion both in animals and human 
beings which the tiger first devours. The man- 
eater will seize an unsuspecting person by the neck, 
and will then drag the body to some retreat in 
which it can devour its prey in undisturbed security. 
Having consumed the hind-quarters, thighs, and the 
more fleshy portions, it will probably leave the body, 
and will never return again to the carcase, but will 
seek a fresh victim, perhaps at some miles’ distance, 
in the neighbourhood of another village. Their 
cautious habits render it almost impossible to destroy 
a cunning man-eater, as it avoids all means of detec¬ 
tion. In this peculiarity the ordinary man-eating 
