INDIA'S STRIPED TERROR.

Press, Volume L, Issue 8583, 9 September 1893, Page 3

INDIA'S STRIPED TERROR.

» — HOW IT BECOMES A MAN EATER. By Sib Edwin Arnold. London Daily Telegraph. The true owner and landlord of many a tract of country in the parts I am revisiting in thought is the gold-coated and striped tyrant of the woods, the tiger* There are large ranges on the ghauts—one might almost call them estates—which are owned, at least temporarily, by a pair of tigers, or, it may be, by an old male tiger singly, or by a tigress which has been left alone to take care of herself and her cubs, and so develops all the worst virtues of her fierce maternity. It is one of these last that has - come to my mind in connection' with a summer evening in India, .when along the lonely jnngle road an Englishman with his attendants was approaching 'a. . village, j In such a country as I tim describing, the villages are few and far between, partly because of many difficulties aa to agriculture and markets, partly because of the resolute way in which the more courageous wild beasts dispute with man hereabouts his pretentions to call himself lord-of the creation. On (he plains, where the country is open aud easily traversed, tigers never stay long in one place, or are likely to pay with their hides if they do ; but on the shoulders of the hills, surrounded by thickets which are the fringe of an interminable forest, the striped rajah of the forest is oftentimes - master of the situation, and takes tribute from the cattle, goats, and dogs of the community, till be can be trapped or poisoned, or until he goes for some personal reason elsewhere. It is not so bad for the country people, as long as he retains his natural dread of man, which is so instinctive that the Indian herd boy will often fearlessly save hie oxen by shouting at the attacking tiger, and even flinging his stick at him; nor do the slender Indian girls shrink from leading their eoate to the stream or fetching home wood and grass because a tiger has killed a cow, or kid just beyond the village.. But at one time or another a tiger who has been, like the rest of his kind, terribly afraid of man in any shape, lays that dread aside on a sudden and forever, and then becomes truly formidable. It is perhaps in most cases the result of an un- i intended experiment. The courage of a tiger is the courage not of ptide, but of desperation, like that of a cat. He will get between the roots of the trees or the cracks in the earth to escape, but if escape be cut off he will attack an elephant with armed sportsmen npon it, which is as if an infantry soldier bhould hurl himself against the masonry of a fortress. la some fatal moment the Hindoo girl going with her pitcher, or the native agriculturist, or the local postman with his jingling bells has passed some spot where a tiger lay in wait watching the distant cattle grazing, or waiting for night time to visit some tigress who has amorously responded to his roar. The beast has thought himself perceived, has feared to be cut off from his usual retreat, or thevictim has shouted in terror, making tfoa tirer hysterical with fright, and then, in a paroxysm of rage and fear, it has snarled and sprung forth and dealt in frenzy rather than desigi that terrible blow with the forepaw which "will stun a wild boar and dislocate the neckbone of a bulL Before his roar of angry surprise has echoed through the jungle the man, or woman, or child lies a corpse under his claws, and instinct forces him to go on, and to crunch the soft neck with his yellow fangs. Then the secret is out: the tiger hat* learned what a " poor forked thing " this lord of the creation is: how feeble his natural forces; how useless for defence that eye that was so dreaded; tboae hands that were so crafty; thoie limbs that bore him so haughtily with his head to the sky. Moreover, that tiger has tasted man and found him savory to devour as he is easy to butcher, and from that time forth the brute neglects no farther opportunity, hut becomes a confirmed '* man-eater."