The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1881-09-24
rHE TIGER.HUNTER OF MADRAS.


THE TIGER-HUNTER OF MADRAS.
While sitting in the little depot at
Jooa one afternoon, in conversation
with the station agent, freight No. Ii,
from Madras, came on to the sliding
opposite to wait for the Bombay express
to pass. Attached to the long train of
rice cars, were several flats, some with
daks" on thNn, others with palan-
uuins, and on the hindermost a very
odd-looking object which at once at
tracted our attention-the more that
there seemed to be a man inside it.
What have you got on that rearcar.
FalesP" my friend the agent called out
to the conductor of the freight.
:. You've got me now?' replied that
official, with a laugh. " That non
descript No name on it. Billed to
Yuloodian. Walk up and see for your
selves, gentlemen. That is the shipper
inside; name, Geeter Zoom Joogr, by
trade a tiger-killer. But you won't find
him talkative.'
The nondescript" was round,
cage-like structure, some twelve feet in
diameter, by six or seven in height. The
bottom was of heavy black timber, and
the fiat top of the same, but not quite
rs massive, while the sides were OF
thick, straight, brown bamboo rods, or
bars, set upright like stanchions in the
black bed pieces, with spaces betwixt
them four or five inches wide. In
short, it was a heavy, round cage. made
years and years ago, and of curious
workmanship.
But the old native inside it was q still
greater curiosity. He was arrayed in a
dirty blue cotton frock, and drawers,
or trowsers, of the sanG stuff. His feet
were bare-such feet! They were so
shrunken and bony, and of such shiny,
wine-brown hue, rs to give one the idea
that they had been calcined over slow
fire.
The man was bare-headed, too, and
what is not common among Hindoos,
his hair, thin and in part gray, was
braided in acue down his back.
The tightness of the skin across his
brows gave to his countenance strange
ly mummified expression, hardly re-
lieved by the deep, dull, black eyes and
coarse, thin eyebrows; while the lower
part of his face was. curiously marked
with still coarser crinkled hairs, too
scattering to be called beard.
His general complexion was like an
old, withered walnut From the elbow
down, his arms were bare; and they
seemed mere parcels of bone and sinew
bound tightly up in sun-dried hide,
while his lean fingers like claws termi-
mated in nails an inch or more long.
Indeed, in the matter of personal APP
pearance, Mr.. Geeter Zoom Joogr was
one of the strangest unbuman human
beings have ever Glanced to meet in
any country.
Set against the side of the cage were
two short spears, or lances, five or six
feet in length, with handles OF some
black wood, and thin, sharp, slender
points of bright steel which shone like
silver. These blades, or points, were
of themselves nearly or quite two feet
long; altogether very ugiy-looking inn
Elements.
did not find him at all communica-
tive. He sat on cane stool, with his
back to the bars of the cage, and solaced
the fatigues of his journey with an enor-
nous pipe. # e
My knowledge of Hindustani was not
sufficient to make much impression on
him at first. A few stolid responses
were all that could elicit from him.
He said, or rather admitted, that he
was going to Yuloodian to kill tiger;
and that killing man-eating tigers was
his business. Fifty rupees was his price
for killing dangerous tiger.
He had made this his business for
twenty years. since the Sepoy war.
felt very curious to know how the old
man hunted, and asked permission to
go up to Yuloodian and participate in
the hunt. To this request he made no
reply for awhile, but upon my urging it
several times, at length said:
1.-THE sahib can suit himself"
just then the express whistled in,
and as soon as it had passed, the freight
and with it old Geeter and his cage
moved on.
Late in the afternoon. after my duties
on the section were over for the day,
went up on the sway freight" to
Yuloodian, taking my Remington car
bine and n stock of cartridges.
1t was one OF those little Hindoo vii
lagos of perhaps two hundred souls,
where the people were prosecuted by a
tiger; state of things hard to conceive
of in America. But in India, where
Buddhism prevails to seme extent, it is
contrary to religion to kill any creature,
even tigers and venomous snakes.
Ordinarily tigers are not dangerous
to the people. But sometimes one will
get a taste of human blood. Thence
forward such tiger viii subsist on
nothing save mans flesh, If team by
any boldness obtain it; and making its
lair in the thickets on the outskirts Of