272 
WILD. BEASTS AND THEIR WA YS 
CHAP. 
hind legs, and with a roar that could have been 
heard at a couple of miles’ distance it seized a small 
tree within its jaws, and then fell backwards ; it 
gave one roll down the slope, and lay motionless. 
The devil was cast out. 
I never saw such enthusiastic rejoicing as was 
occasioned by the death of this notorious tiger. 
The news ran like fire through the neighbouring 
villages before we had completed the packing of the 
animal upon Demoiselle. I had no means of weigh¬ 
ing this tiger, but it was the heaviest I have ever 
seen, and although we had four poles beneath its 
body and a great number of willing men at the 
extremities, we had great difficulty in loading 
Demoiselle. By the time we had completed the 
operation we had a large crowd in attendance, all of 
whom followed the elephant upon the march towards 
our camp bearing the body of the tiger, which had 
been the scourge of their herds during so many 
years. 
At least 300 women and children assembled to 
satisfy themselves that their enemy was really dead. 
The women kissed his feet and wiped their eyes 
with the tip of his tail; for what purpose could not 
be explained. 
As this animal' had lived in luxury, it was 
immensely fat, and we filled numerous chatties with 
this much-loved grease, to be used as ointment for 
rheumatic complaints. Unfortunately at that time 
I had no weighing machine, therefore it was im¬ 
possible to judge the weight with accuracy, but we 
