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Wild Beasts and Their Ways

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the son of the missionary of that name, was killed by a tigress, which was the first to attack. This animal was reported by the natives to be in a certain nullah within a short distance of the camp. The young man, who was quite inexperienced, took a gun, and with a few natives proceeded to the spot on foot. Looking over the edge of the nullah in the hope of finding the tiger lying down, he was suddenly startled by an unexpected attack; a tigress bounded up the steep bank and seized Mr. Lawes before he had time to fire. The animal did not continue the attack, but merely shook him for a few moments, and then retreated to her lair; he was so grievously wounded that he died on the following day, after his arrival in a litter at Reipore. Many people imagine that a tiger attacks man with the intention of eating him, as a natural prey; this is a great mistake. The greater number of accidents are occasioned by tigers which have no idea of making a meal of their victims; they may attack from various reasons. Self-defence is probably their natural instinct; the tiger may imagine that the person intends some injury, and it springs to the attack; or it may be lying half asleep, and when suddenly disturbed it flies at the intruder without any particular intention of destroying him, but merely as a natural result of being startled from its rest. When, driven by a line of beaters, the tiger breaks back, it may be readily understood that it will attack the first individual that obstructs its retreat, but in no case will the tiger eat the man, unless it is a professional man-eater. The cunning combined with audacity of some man-eaters is extraordinary. A few years ago there was a well-known tiger in the Mandla district which took possession of the road, and actually stopped the traffic. This was not the generally accepted specimen of a man-eater, old and mangy, but an exceedingly powerful beast of unexampled ferocity and audacity. It was a merciless highwayman, which infested a well-known portion of the road, and levied toll upon the drivers of the native carts, not by an attack upon their bullocks, but by seizing the driver himself, and carrying him off to be devoured in the neighbouring jungle. It had killed a number of people, and nothing would induce a native to venture upon that fatal road with a single cart; it had therefore become the custom to travel in company with several carts together, as numbers were supposed to afford additional security. This proved to be a vain expectation, as the tiger was in no way perplexed by the arrangement; it bounded from the jungle where it had lain in waiting, and having allowed the train of carts to pass in single file, it seized the driver of the hindmost, and as usual carried the man away, in spite of the cries of the affrighted companions. Upon several occasions this terrible attack had been enacted, and the traffic was entirely stopped. A large reward was offered by the Government, but without effect; the man-eater never could be found by any of the shikaris. At length the Superintendent of Police, Mr. Duff, who unfortunately had lost one arm by a gun accident, determined to make an effort at its destruction, and he adroitly arranged a plan that would be a fatal trap, and catch the tiger in its own snare. He obtained two covered carts, each drawn as usual by two bullocks. The leading cart was fitted in front and behind with strong bars of lashed bamboo, which formed an impervious cage; in this the driver was seated, while Mr. Duff himself sat with his face towards the rear, prepared to fire through the bars should the tiger, according to its custom, attack the driver of the rearmost cart. This would have been an exciting moment for the driver, but Mr. Duff had carefully prepared a dummy, dressed exactly to personate the usual native carter; the bullocks, being well trained, would follow closely in the rear of the leading cart, from which a splendid shot would be obtained should the tiger venture upon an attack. All went well; the road was desolate, bordered by jungle upon one side, and wild grass-land upon the other. They had now reached the locality where the dreaded danger lay, and slowly the carts moved along the road in their usual apathetic manner. This must have been an exciting moment, and Mr. Duff was no doubt thoroughly on the lookout. Suddenly there was a roar; a large tiger bounded from the jungle, and with extraordinary quickness seized the dummy driver from his seat upon the rearmost cart, and dragged the unresisting victim towards the jungle! Nothing could have been better planned, but one chance had been forgotten, which was necessary to success. No sooner had the tiger roared, and bounded upon the cart, than the affrighted bullocks, terrified by the dreadful sound, at once stampeded off the road, and went full gallop across country, followed by Mr. Duff's bullocks in the wildest panic. It was impossible to fire, and after a few seconds of desperate chariot race, both carts capsized among the numerous small nullahs of the broken ground, where bullocks and vehicles lay in superlative confusion; the victorious man-eater was left to enjoy rather a dry meal of a straw-stuffed carter, instead of a juicy native which he had expected. This was a disappointment to all parties concerned, except the dummy driver, who was of course unmoved by the failure of the arrangement. The story is thoroughly authenticated, and has been told to me by the Commissioner of the district exactly as I have described it. The tiger was subsequently killed by a native shikari, when watching from a tree over a tied buffalo. Although the tiger as a "man-eater" is a terrible scourge, and frequently inflicts incredible loss upon the population of a district, there are tigers in existence which would never attack a human being, although they exist upon the cattle of the villages, and have every opportunity of seizing women and children in their immediate neighbourhood. About nine years ago there was a well-known animal of this character at a place called Bhundra in the Jubbulpur district, which was supposed to have killed upwards of 500 of the natives' cattle. This was a peculiarly large tiger, but so harmless to man that he was regarded merely in the light of a cattle-lifter, and neither woman nor

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