Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1883-12-31
A Thrilling Adventure.

vitation to visit the Nsilgheny Hill
and the western grants. We had
very fine sport of a description quite
new to me. but my companions show
ed incipient signs of fever and hur-
ried back to Ooty. Shooting alone
is stupid work after youths enthu-
siasm has worn off, and / was think
ing of vending my way back, too,
when on arriving at Pullikul the
Kurders told me they had lost sew
eral men lately from man-eating ti-
gers. [ instantly remembered my
youthful adventures. 1t is true,
many royal tiger, panther, behe-
moth, taurus, bear and buffalo, to
say nothing of deer, &C., have fallen
by my hand in the interval; for l
had been a persistent and fortunate
shikarls but had never forgotten
the panthers of Neermul, no; the
abomnible bath given me by one of
them, which discharged a meal Of
human flesh into my face as I plung-
ed my knife into his heart. [ had
killed many man-eaters, but had run
no great risk from them, for I had
generally been mounted on an ele-
phant; now | determined to follow
them up on foot to the death. The
villagers said they thought there were
couple of them, male and fe-
male; and that they never went very
far, killing one or two people every
three or four days. l pitched my
tent near the village and organized a
gang; these men are famous track
ers, but no rain had fallen for many
weeks, and the whereabouts of the
felines could not be discovered by
their trail; they were not heard of
until some one was missing. Their
depredations extended for miles
around, and the wailing of family
bereft of its support was only too
frequent. / went from place to
place, sometimes only accompanied
by one shikarie, Chinah, who had
been with me some years, or with
beaters, trying to drive out these
pests: but for three weeks I had no
luck; they were never at home. At
last the brutes took to killing my
men, and lost two out of my gang.
l begged of the relatives to allow me
to sit over the remains, but they
would not, removing the bodies and
burning them. True, 1 had never
been partial to such proceedings as
night shooting, and / was not so
keen as l had been many years be-
fore; still, l had the dogged dispo-
sition of bulldog, and 1 did not
like to be beaten, yet what was to
do? People were constantly killed,
and | could get no sight of their
slayers. / had one week left; l
wrote to have bearers laid from Coim-
batore to the nearest point to the
Anamullies on a certain day, and
despairing of Kidding the country of
these animals, | was marching along
silently, accompanied by my two
shikaries, when l heard what | knew
to be death shrek. / hastened,
almost ran toward the sound, little
needing what noise l made as tore
through the jungle, followed by my
satellites but | might have known,
had l given it thought, that /
should frighten the slayer away.
There lay a wood-cutter, with his
skull fractured by single blow; he
had been also seized by the neck,
whence the blood poured in torrents ;
but the man was stone dead. Here
was my opportunity; the man would
not be missed before it was too late
to search for him, so as had little
food with me, | determined to sit
over the remains. The moon was at
its brightest; | would not allow the
body to be touched; it lay partially
hidden by some fallen bamboos so,
telling my men to prepare q machan
on the nearest tree, about ten yards
off, l examined the ground. There
was ravine close by, up which the
monster had crept and pounced upon
his victim he would probably return
that way. | saw but the marks of
one tiger, while my men declared
they hunted in couples they (the
men) were also very reluctant to sit
over the body, being superstitious
that they would ever be hunted after
ward, but | knew if | did not avail
myself of this chance / should get nc
other; so / was firm, and told them
remain they must.
We erected the machan as noise
lessly as possible. Tigers are often
driven off by the noise men make
while preparing a cache with which
to slay them. My men urged the
danger we ran of getting jungle fever
by sleeping out at night. / merely
told them to hold their tongues and
to mount, and if / heard either OF
them utter a sound or make the least
noise / would fasten him down to the
corpse. The men knew / did not
threaten and not perform, so, un.
willing as they were, perforce they
had to obey in silence. We arrang.
ed bushes to hide our place of con.
cealment: we had no bedding, nc
pillows, and the bamboos which com
posed the floor of our platform were