Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-11-07
THE MAN EATER OF DORAYPORE,

According to their habits in procuring
their food, tigers are divided, by the
people Of India, into three classes. The
least harmful is the '.game-killer," who
lives in the hills and dense forests where
game is abundant and leads the life of a
bold. honest hunter. He feeds chiefly
upon deer and wild hogs, retreats readily
from a and so long as he remains a
ryots who have hard work to proteot
thcir crops FROM LIS a-oyss ct dces and
wild hogs.
The "cattle-liftcr'' is a big, fat, lazy
thief. too INDECENT to pull down fleet
footed wild animals, who prowls around
the villages after nightfall, or the edge
of the jungles where the cattle are
herded. and kills q bullock about every
four OF five days. The annual loss to the
cattle owners, whose herds are thus
preyed upon by cattle-lifters, is very
great, since each tiger destroys, in a
year. cattle worth about four hundred
dollars.
But even the most industrious cattle
litter sinks INFO insignificance in the
prcssnce of the fierce ''man-eater," the
scourgc and terror of the timid and de-
fenselesa natives. Until q tiger has once
had his fanHs in human flesh, he has an
instructive fear Of man. and unless
bro,gin to bay will nearly always re-
trcat from his presence. But with his
frs. taste OF human blood that fear van
isles forever. His nature changes, and
he becomes a man-eatcr.
Tigers who prey upon human beings
arc usually old cattle-lifters, who, from
long acquaintance with man, have
ceased to fear him, and find him the
easiest prey to overcome and carry of.
A large proportion Of the man-eaters are
mangy s~uperannuated old tigers or
tigresses whose teeth and claws have
become blunt from losg usage, and who
drag off bulloeas.
Thanks 20 our English sportsmen,
and improved firearms. m%an-eatlng
tigers are now rare compared with
what their numbers once were. 1t is
not possible now for a single tigress to
cause the dcsertion of thirteen villages
and throw out of cultivation a tract of
country fifteen miles square, as once oc-
cured; nor for another to kill one hun
drcd and twenty-sevcn persons before
being laid low. Yet, in spite of zeal
Gus English sportsmen and ~breech-load-
ing rifles, the man-eaters still devour
over eight hundred human beings in
India every year.
1t is but natural that in the tiger
country one should hear many very in
,tcresting tiger stories. 1t once hap
pened that at the close of a glorious
DAYS bison.shooting on the Animallai
Hills with my old friend, Theobald, we
sat before q cheerful campfire in the
Jungle over our chocolate and sweet
meats, with our native followers all
about us, discussing the events Of the
day.
Ibid you ever kill aman-eater, Theo-
bald?" ! asked presently.
.'Yes.'
Tell me all about it, won't you?'
said l, with hungry interest. ':Had ha
many people to account ior?"
Thirteen, if [ remember rightly.
All, he was a famous brute in his day
They called him the 'Man-eater of Dor.
aypore.' That was several years ago,
and l was quite o y%oungster then," he
added. with a smile, as he stroked MS
long, ~ict-black beard. '.Do you really
want Il hear all about it?."
Yes, everything you can remem-
Der
Vel. the Doraypore man-eatcr was
the terror Of a little village of that name,
and several other villages. too, for that
matter, right down below here, not fal