Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1884-01-05
A THRILLING ADVENTURE,

In the year 1875 / accented an in.
Vltatlon to visit the Nsilgherry Hill
and the western CHANTS. We had
very fine sport of description quite
new to me, but my companions
showed incipient signs of fever and
hurried back to Ooty. Shooting
alone Is stupid work after youths
enthusiasm has worn off, and l was
thinking of vending my way back,
100, when on arriving at Pullikui
the kurders told me they had lost
several men lately from man-eating
tigers. instantly remembered my
youthful adventures. 1t is true,
many royal tiger, panther, behe-
)noth, taurus, bear and buffalo, to
say nothing of deer, &C., had fallen
10 my hand in the interval for
lad been a persistent and fortunate
shikarls but | had never forgotten
the panthers of Neermul, no; the
slbominable bath given me by one
Df them, which discharged a meal
uf human flesh into my face as /
plunged my knife into his heart.
had killed many man-eaters, but
had run no great risk from them,
5or | had generally been mounted
an an elephant; now l determined
10 follow them up on foot to the
death. The villagers said they
thought there were couple of them,
Il male and female; 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 crackers, 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 a family bereft of its sup
port was only too frequent. l went
from place to place, sometimes only
accompanied by one shikarie, Chin
iah, who had been with me some
wears, or with beaters, trying to
drive out these pests; but for three
weeks | had no luck they were
never at home. At last the brutes
took TO killing my men, and L 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, had never been par
tial to such proceedings as night
shooting, and was not so keen as
i had been many years before; still,
i had the logged disposition OF a
bulldog, and did not like to be
beaten, yet what was | to do? PeO-
pie were constantly killed, and 1
could get no sight of their SlayerS. |
/ had one week left; l wrote to |
have bearers laid from COimbatOre |
to the nearest point to the Anamul- |
lies on "A certain day, and despairing |
of Kidding the country of these ami |
mails, | was marching along silent |
ly, accompanied by my two shika- |
ries, when | heard what / knew to |
be a death shrek. | fastened, |
almost ran, toward the sound, little |
needing what noise l made as | |
tore through the jungle, followed by
nv satellites but l might have |
known, had l given it thought,
that | should frighten the slayer
away. There lay a wOOd-cutter,
with his skull fractured by a 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 would be too late to search for
him, so as | had a little food with
me, determined to sit over the re-
mains. The moon was at its bright
est; | would not allow the body to
be touched; it lay partially hidden
by some fallen bambOOS; 50, telling
my men to prepare machan on
The nearest tree, about ten yards OF,
/ examined the ground. There was
a ravine close by, up which the
had crept and pOunced up
on 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 re-
luctant to sit over the body, being
that they would ever
be hunted afterward, but 1 knew if
/ did not avail myself of this chance
i should get no other; so l 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 fe-
yer by sleeping out at night. l
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 fas-
ten him down TO the corpse. The
men knew that | did not threaten
and not perform, SO, unwilling as
they were, perfOrce they had to
obey in silence. We arranged BUSH
es to hide our place of cOncealment;
we had no bedding, no pillows, and
the bambOOS which composed the
floor of our platform were not very
even or smooth, therefore not pleas
ant 10 sit on for some ten or twelve
hours, during which we could move
neither hand nor foot.
AS the moon arose the trees behind
us cast their shadows over the place
where the poor WOod-cutter was
living. Time passed. 1t must have
been abOnt ten, and | was doing,
when my arm was grasped by
Chiniah. Looking round, | found
his teeth chattering and his face as
pale as a corpse, while the other
man, with his hands over his face,
sat trembling. From these l looked
towa Il where Chiniah's Mortified
gaze pointed to something unearth-
". / knew the fellow was afraid
of nothing living, but of the unseen
spirits he had dread. /, TOO, was
taken aback. The CHASTITY body of
the wood-cutter was slowly moving
to and fro; the arms and legs Occa-
lifted up, while no agent
o5n- ''=1;'>t-~ T. made my blood run
all hours. w 4 80 sci
March ior Wagons
MI made of the