The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1870-06-11

away from their ewn cattle. A driver
of mail-cart will also scare them away
by merely sounding his bugle. Else.
where, however, they are either bolder
Or have less choice of food In the cen.
trail provinces it is thing Of yearly oc.
currence to hear that man-eater has
posed himself near some district tho
roughfare, whence he falls on unwary
travellers and toi|ing peasants, until, en-
boldened by practice, he even carries of
his prey from within the village enclos-
ures. In the Chanda district alone, one
of these brutes killed, in a short time,
127 people, and stopped all traffic for
many weeks on the road from Mooll to
Chanda. A tigress in Chindwharrah
slew, according to native estimates, $50
people in three years, causing the aban-
donment of the villages, and throwing
$50 miles out of cultivation. Another
old tigress in Kurnool carried off sixty
four human beings within nine mo this,
stopped the post-runners and police pa
trolls, and scared away the laborers en-
ployed on public works. ~One of her
victims was the head constable. The
brute's average allowance seems to have
been one man every three days. TWAS
only by keeping together in numbers
and making horrible noise with "tom-
toms that travellers could safely pass
that way. At last broad strip of jun
gle was clealed away from either side of
the road. and in due time the beast was
hunted down.
In the Bhagalpore District alone of
Lower Bengal, as many as l,434 people
were killed by wild beasts in six years.
During the same period 13, 4O1 deaths
from wild beasts were reported for Ben.
gal Proper, of which APIS are ascribed
to tigers, 1,407 to leopards, 4.287 to
wolves, 174 to hyenas, and 105 to bears,
the balance being set down to boars,
jackals, buffaloes, elephants and mad
dogs On the other hand it cost tie
government e6, 500 in rewards to secure
the destruction in the same time of 49,
1876 wild beasts, of whom 1878 were
tigers, S 663 leopards, 1911 bears, and
1888 wolves. In one year the loss Of
human life In the Central Provinces
amounted to SOC, many of whom were
children, while SIS tigers, S95 panthers
and leopards, 534 bears, 467 wolves and
ATS hyenas were put to death. The
wolves of Oudh in the same year killed
five men. two women, seventy-two boys
and eighty girls. Each of the other
provinces adds it's quota to the butchers
bill. Of the number of cattle slain and
and of the loss entailed on their poor
owners, no regular estimate can be form.
ed but one man alone in South Canara
complained of having lost fifty head of
cattle through wild beasts. Captain Ro-
gers tells Of a tiger who killed half
dozen in a few minutes, and it is we'll
known that thousands of villagers are
continually reduced to utter poverty, fol
lowed by long term of bondage to
money-lenders, through the ravagss of
these unpleasant neigbbors. The very
spread of cultivation tends to increase
the suffering caused by their neighbor-
hood. In the Neilgherries, for instance,
the clearing away Of .jungles for coffee
plantations drives the wild animals to
seek their prey from the villages at the
foot of the hills. On the other hand,
the planting of new aud the conservation
of old forests may afford new haunts or
new means of living to the beasts of
prey. Superstition also plays no small
part In the maintenance of these intoler-
able scourges. The Gonds, for instance,
instead of mastering in force tn hunt
down the tigers who wage war against
them and their herds, have an idiotic
way of regarding the tiger as divinity
whose wrath it is unsafe to arouse. IF
one of them falls prey to the appetite
for human flesh, the rest of the family
are forthwith rabooed as displeasing to
the object of their reverent dread, and
must expiate their offence by costly sa-
crifces, which may leave them penniless
but will restore them to their Caste
rights.
The head money granted by the gov.
ernment. to the tune Of ELS, 900 a year,
tends, no doubt, to keep the nuisance of
wild beasts in some check As much as
a hundred pounds has been given for
the head Of man.eating tiger. But the
rewards are sometimes granted on very
slight evidence; for it is well known
that cunning native will bring up an
old head for new one, or sew tigers
skin over the head Of some smaller ami
NAL, and thus cheat eredulous or care
less official into passing an unfounded
claim. Perhaps the present scale of re-
wards would bear amending, if, as we
understand, much too little is offered for
the cubs in comparison with full-groWn
tigers. The quickest way Of extirpating
the brutes would be to encourage the
destruction Of young animals by larger
bounty for their heads. Sportsmen ha-
turalIy shrink from attacking these
scourges with other than the sportsmen's
usual weapons; but even Capt. Rogers
in his report avows himself thorough
convert to the use Of traps and other
wiles against foes SO widely destructive.
II Aliens Indian Mail.
-~>->~~-----asbs.s.-~~------~->
A Good suggestions.
A writer ia the West Point Herald
makes suggestion for building facto-
ries in the South that is worthy Of con.
sideration 1t IS for the farmers Of