262 
WILD BEASTS AND THEIR WAYS 
CHAP. 
the people spoke of it as a matter of course that 
admitted of no argument; they assured me that 
the tiger was frequently met by the natives, and 
that it invariably passed them in a friendly manner 
without the slightest demonstration of hostility, but 
that it took away a cow or bullock in the most 
regular manner every fourth day. It varied its 
attentions, and having killed a few head of cattle 
belonging to one village, it would change the 
locality for a week or two, and take toll from 
those within a radius of four or five miles, always 
returning to the same haunts, and occupying or 
laying up in the same jungle. The great peculi¬ 
arity of this particular tiger consisted in the extreme 
contempt for fire-arms: it exposed itself almost 
without exception when driven by a line of beaters, 
and when shot at it simply escaped, only to re¬ 
appear upon the following day. I was informed 
that everybody that had gone after it had obtained 
a shot, but bullets were of no use against a devil, 
therefore it was always missed. 
I was 30 miles distant when I heard of this 
tiger, and I immediately directed our course towards 
Bhundra. It was a pretty and interesting place, 
where the presence of rich hematite iron ore has 
from time immemorial induced a settlement of 
smelters. There are jungle-covered low hills upon 
which large trees are growing, yet all such import¬ 
ant mounds are composed of refuse from furnaces, 
which were worked some hundred years ago. 
We arrived there early in May during the hottest’ 
