The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1869-03-04
Man Eating Tigers.

HiesNN
already killed aud eaten eight or ten score
of market gardeners and that the price OF
cabbages and turnips had goue up twenty
per cent. in consequence Of these audacious
ravaees We cannot imagine such state
of affairs but it exists often enough in the
East, and even close to large cities. Here
is paragraph from the Madras Times, Of
December 2. dated from Chintagoonta, SIT
mated near the considerable town of Cud-
dapah. and on the road to another populous
place called Nandval. The correspondent
saws: We are much annoyed by man
eater, about eleven miles Oft, under the
| hills. and the effect has been to raise the
price of bamboos, charcoal and wood. /
happened to be yesterday in the village
where it committed its last depreciation. |
| found force one hundred strong, compos-
ed Of tile young men OF the adjoining vii
lages-they assemble every morning about
nine A. NJ, and march with tomtoms ahead
and aStern, armed with spears and match
locks, into the jungle near the village, car
rylng food to men who are posted III trees
near each place where any one has been kill
ed. As may be expected, since they took
these precautions, they have seen nothing OF
him, as he has quietly gone to another vii
lage. They told me that the tiger had killed
more than two hundred people, great ma
ny close to the village. Here is the murderer
and man eater in the dress Of yellow and
black The beast is lord of the district
and !evies his land-tax of flesh and blood
whenever his appetite moves him. BY tar
! ~,
miles around, in the juHg les and plains
about Chintagoonta, is this "N agh. the
tiger. He is greater than the Zemlndar,
| thaa the Head Priest, or the Coilector-oa-
hcb and while the Striped Tyrant lives
and prowls, the wretched Hindoos must
talk aud thiuk Of nothing else. lie de-
ranges the market, as it will bs seen, for it
is more than the life of the charcoal burn
ers and cane cutters is worth for them to
trust themselves in small parties anywhere
about his haunts. Such a brute, his tangs
once dyed in human blood, never abandons
the dainty food he watches the poor wood
men in the bushes the cowboys roaming
upon the maidan, the women and girls go
ing down for water to the river Or the
jheel; he lies beside the path which the
letter-carriers take, and knows when the
old men 80 out to drive the goats home.
One by one his victims disappear, until 81
panic falls upon the neighboflood, and the
poor people hang about their huts, or go
out only in stroug detachmeuts. Then he
grows bolder, aud creeps at night close to
| the walls of the houses, picking up his hu-
man supper from the evening 1iro or the
village gateway. Usually there are "shi-
karries' native hunters-somewhere at
hand, who manage in the end, after many
a patient vigil in the fork OF a tree, to pat
match lock bullet in the right place; and
then there are held as exuberant re]oiciugs
as though some great pubiic victory had
been won. The monster is brought inc
the village with dances and drums, the wo-
men scream curses at his dead carcass, the
men cut off his whiskers and claws for
charms, his hide is tlayed oil, and then load
ed with executions, lie is dragged out into
the open field for the vnltures to eat. Bat
it often happens that the tiger IS not to be
''potted' by such weapons as the native
guns; and in that case he sometimes actu-
ally drives a whole village away. Many
and many a deserted site may be found 10
the Indian jungles, where the huts are dis
mantlel the temples are empty, the grass
grows in the narrow street, and the shlkar-
ries tell you sit is the tiger The muir
derer in the black and yellow suit has tax
en- possession; and, as likely AS not, III the
early morning the brute may be seen sneak
| ing home from his hunt, Into some village
| habitation, where he has made Lis den.
The man-eatiug tigers, however, are al
most always very old beasts. So long as
the beast has his nails and ft:nga in pertec
ton, and his muscles are still strong and
1.-THE, he lets human creatures alone as much
as possible. When impelled by hunger he
can pounce upon an antelope or buffalo, or
at the worst lie in wait for the village herds,
and pick up now aud then a goat or a COW.
But old age comes upon the great cat at
last, and he finds the black buck and wild
cattle too agile fol him. A sharp-sct tiger,
it is true, will eat almost anythlng-from
carrion Of the vilest kind to frogs, toads,
snakes and lizards; but such ''small deer
do not fill his NAV. His teeth are worn
down, his claws are broken and stumpy, his
hide has grown patched and mangy, the I'll
crosses yell at him and beat him off; his
living has become very hard to get, and he
hunts alone all night in vain till the empti-
ness Of his belly forces him to the chase in
the daytime-a thing which tigers dislike,
because the hot ground is painful to their
huge but delicate pads The sight Of some
juicy little Hindoo lad passing by with the
kline tempts the desperate brute to set aside
the natural dread which beasts feel for man.
He finds that soft brown ''lord of the ere /
ton" easier to kill than goat, and nicer
to eat than a kid. From that day forward
he is confirmed man-eater. He studies
the ways aud customs of the new prey, till
he knows how to sneak up and pick the
bird-scarer from his muchaun, and when to
look out for the tappalwalaw, or the boy
going to the temple with chupatties for the
priest. The yellow and black juugle-tyrant
regains comparative strength and lusthood;
and since he has taken to mans flesh, he
has no longer the old terror Of the human
race. He is at once horribly bold and cum
ming he comes to know exactly when he
is in real danger, and when it is tolerably
safe for him to disregard noises and squeal-
ing, aud pick out his dinner from among