ON THE TRACK OF A MAN-EATER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2082, 18 January 1894, Page 41

ON THE TRACK OF A MAN-EATER.

"A man-eater!" I exclaimed, "when was it last heard of 1 " "It killed a young woman only two days ago, about two coss (four miles) from this, as she was collecting dry sticks for firewood, but we have heard nothing of it since."

"Well," said I, "before going on to the Nizam's country I will remain here for a few days and see if I can't bag the man-eater ; but it is late, be off to bed, and in the morning I'll go with gun to the village to ascertain if there be any fresh intelligence." . .

. . I could not have been asleep more than a couple of hours when I was awakened by most discordant noises and the light of many torches, and, hurrying out, found a posse of some dozen men and women, the latter chanting their hymn for the dead. On inquiring what had happened, I was told that a couple of hours after my departure from the village the patel had retired just outside the hamlet, and had never been seen again. On being missed, he was searched for, and shreds of scanty clothing with which he had been attired proved that he had been dragged away. The people were afraid to penetrate far, and had at once organised a party to communicate the sad sews to me. . . . I had a mart constructed, and went down to it about an hour before sunset. In remote and isolated places, especially where there 1b a scarcity of water, wild beaßts often come to drink just before dark, so it is as well to be early, so as not to throw away a chance. I took a shikari with me to sit up, and three villagers to return with the syce and pony, for their was no knowing where the dreaded man-eater might be. ... About 3 the shikari touched me, and the moon was somewhat obscured by a passing cloud, but, peering about, I saw a bear some way off — too far for a certain shot at night — so I bided my time. After drinking, he commenced to turn up, with his paws, clods of earth and the few stones scattered about, in search of beetles I have no doubt. To my left there was a white ant neat, which had been recently added to by the termites ; this attracted the attention of.Master Ursus, and he shambled towards it, uttering a peculiar cry as he did so, and s^on he was joined by a comrade. They soon began to demolish the cone to get at the nest which contains the larvas; and I knew it would take them some time to get at it, for it is situated at the very base of the ant-hill, and, although the newly-added portion is easily crumbled away, the older gets cemented bj the heat of the sun, and is as hard to break through as well-burnt bricks. There was no hurry ; the bears were not likely to leave until they bad got at. their bonne buche ; and, telling the man to wake me again, I turned round, and should have been asleep in another moment but for a touch from my attendant. Looking up at him, I saw him

intently gazing on a point diametrically opposite to that occupied by the urste. At first I conld distinguish nothing. I flatter myself I have very good eyesight, but natives are phenomenally acute in their vision ; and although in broad daylight I would not have owned much inferiority, yet at night I was nowhere in comparison with them, so it took me some little time to distinguish what he was staring at. The bears still continued their work of destruction; the shikari bent his head towards my ear and whispered " Bagh " (tiger). I Bilently cocked both barrels, hoping and praying it might be the maneater,' and afraid to breathe almost ; the next few moments seemed an eternity, they appeared to pass so slowly. L cannot bear suspense, and if it is continued any time I get quite nervous through excitement. If it had been an ordinary tiger, I should not have been so anxious, but — why, I do not know — I jumped at the conclusion that it must be the man-eater, and was doubly anxious to slay him. In less than five minutes, which I could hare sworn were an hour, I saw the outline of a magnificent tiger stealthily creeping along towards the water. The bears mußt have scented him, they could not have seen him, for their bodies were half buried in the hollow in the ant-bill, and they were sucking in the ants' eggs with their long tongueß, when suddenly they desisted, and, with a grunt of disgust and despair, scampered away towards the jungle. The tiger took no notice of thorn, but, taking advantage of a gravelling bit, went up to the tank and began to lap the water right in front of me and not 20 yards off. His broadside was facing me, and, resting the rifle on the ear them rampart in front, I took a careful shot and fired. There was a splash and a series of half growls, half roars, for ihe had fallen into the water, and whilst struggling and endeavouring to get on his legs he was being half suffocated. He managed to get to the edge, and there he lay lashing himself with his tail and uttering roar after roar.

I soon perceived that his back was broken, and that he was helpless. I would willingly have put' him out of his pain, but shooting at night is most difficult, and I did not want to spoil his skin ; I did not like to go up to him to administer the coup de grace, for one never knows what a wounded tiger can do with a last expiring effort, and, as it was then close upon 5 o'clock, I waited for the first glimpse of daylight before I fired again. I could not account for the bad, at the same time jlucky, shot I had made. My rifle bad a very low trajectory. I had fired at the point of the elbow, but it must have carried very high to have broken 'the tiger's back; but this was soon explained, for I found one of the flaps of the back sight up. The tiger's moans, groans, and roars were dreadful and incessant, and I was only too glad when I could see sufficiently distinctly to put a ball through his head. The shikari and I with great difficulty managed to drag him out of the water, and, after washing off the mud which clung to him, we found that he had a most lovely coat, and was a beast of the largest size.

About half -past 6 o'clock my syce, with the pony and half a dozen villagers, turned up. I told them that I had at last destroyed the man-eater; but, on examining the defunot animal, one of the villagers shook his head and saia, " That, sahib, is not the man-eater ; this is far too large, and he has killed and eaten some deer, which the man-eater never does." On cutting the beast up, we found inside fids of flesh with the hide adhering, proving that he had but lately killed and eaten a sambur. Any tiger is better than none, and I still hoped against hope that it might be the beast I was after ; but such was not the case, for that very afternoon, as I was superintending the curing of the skin (which was pegged out in the open) by having ashes well rubbed into it, four men from Ananteepore, distant fully 15 miles off, came reporting that at 5 o'clock that morning a tappal runner (post carrier) had been killed by a tiger. It was evident the brute kept near the river, and wandered never far inland ; so, leaving a couple of men in chargejof the tiger's skin, and telling them I would skin them alive if they allowed the whiskers to be burnt or singed off, as natives are so fond of doing, I took a short cut and got back to my first camp at dusk. There was no news next day, and, as the beast seldom killed twice rannicg in the same locality, I moved on to Ohotamundy.

The next day the tiger attempted to carry off a herdsman tending buffaloes on the Bands in the Godavery, but had been driven off by the cattle, who charged and chased him for a considerable diatance. For two more days we heard nothing more of him. Then it was reported that he had killed a boy some seven miles south, and had been traced and surrounded. I lost no time, you may be sure, and in a couple of hours I wae in a machan, and 50 men in a line beating towards me. They formed a half moon, and I saw no mode of the beast's getfciDg away without exposing himself; but I was not half acquainted with the resources of the animal I was after. The very thicket he was in was known; the people were exasperated, bad collected in great force from ever village within a radius of 20 miles, and as they kept well together, the din they made with shouting and yelling and beating tom-toms and blowing horns was sufficient, one would imagine, to terrify anything. I had my eyes on the thicket. I was not 20yds off it, with my gun on full cock, expecting "every moment that the quarry would break. The line was within 40, then 30, then 20 yards, yet not a movement. The coolies baited for a moment, redoubling their diabolical noises, and then, thinking the beast had decamped, they almost rushed into the place where he had been traced to. There was a roar, a striped body sprang at the nearest man, and although in doing so he got a number of blows from the heavy latUes carried by the nearest men, be bore bis victim to the ground, gave him one crunch, and then darted off. I was helpless. I could mot fire, for the men clustered almost round the beast in their excitement, and the man-eater of Ohotamundy had again escaped. One would imagine that, after bis narrow escape, the man-eater would have been quiet for a few dayß, or have gone far away ; but the very next day he killed a man. I waß out after other game, and was not far from where the murder took place; and, as the body had been untouched, I persuaded the villagers to let it remain and sat over it, but the brute did not put in an

appearance, but killed a woman near theriver bank some two miles from Chotamundy. 1 had tried to circumvent him in every way for the past 10 days. My leave was dwindling away ; I was losing all sport, but I did not like to go away and leave this fiend incarnate to prey on the people. As soon as I returned to the village from my night's vigil, I went off to view the body. It was scaroely cold ; the tiger had not completed his work, for some reason or other; the girl had bled to death. It was not then 8 o'clock. For two dajs the tiger had been interrupted in .his meals, and I thought he must be hungry, and that he would probably, if not disturbed, return to make a repast off the body. I therefore sent off the men and hid myself in a natural hollow within 15 yards of the corpse, and well sheltered by thorny bushes. I- had not lain there long when, with a violent jerk, tbe body was Bnatched away. My eyes must have been taken off the hill for a moment, and the beast must bay© taken advantage thereof and repossessed itself of its prey. Although alone, and at a disadvantage in suoh ground— consisting as it did of inequalities and heavy bush — I hurried forward, determined to do or die, as the novelists say. So dry was the ground, that I was at a loss to follow the trail, as the beast bad not dragged the body along the ground. It must have oarrieditin its month, much as a oat does a mouse, and have turned down some dry watercourse; for though I ran along some way I failed to find a trace, but just ahead of me I saw a herd of buffaloes, headed by a very large bull, and, knowing that these animals.actingin concert, do not fear a tiger, I got hold of the gwalao and promised them 20 rupees if they would drive their herd as I should iudicate. The men drove the cattle right across the placo where the girl had been killed, and no sooner did the bull smell the blood and the scent of the tig9r, than with a bellow, lowering his head, he galloped forward, followed byjthe cows and the immature bulls, following the scent much as a dog might have done. I ran my best, hoping to get a shot, but the ground was covered with trailing vines; over these I kept stumbling, and finally came a cropper, and by the time I got on to my feet the buffaloes had overtaken the tiger ; the bull rushed at him, and I just saw a brindled mass thrown high up. It had barely reached terra firma again when it was again elevated. The tiger roared, clawed, and bit. I could not get a shot ; if I had rushed in I stood a chance of being {tossed too. The bovines formed a phalanx round the feline, and, what with tossing, prodding, and kneeling, they soon deprived the scourge of the country of its | life. Tbe cattle were in such a state of excitement that even their attendants hesitated going in to drive them off. I promised them 10 rupees more to separate them, as I did not i wish to the skin ruined ; they succeeded at last in doing so, and, as soon as the coast was clear, I found the tiger stone dead,, but beaten into a jelly. Considering the length of the horns, the pointed tips, and the vast strength wielded by a buffalo, I was surprised to find so little damage had been done. There were a few prods, but only one serious one — in the chest — which had gone in a good foot or more ; but otherwise the tiger met his death more by being pounded than by being bored. The body of the girl lay close by, unmutilated.

Thus, after ail my trouble, the famous man-eater of Ohotamundy escaped me, but met a deserved fate at the — hands I was going to say — but, more properly, by the horns and hoofs of a herd of buffalo. I got 100 rupees reward, which I distributed amongst thoso who had lost relations. — ■ " Wandbkbb," in the Field.