Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-02-27
a TIGER STORY.
a Mysterious warning-The superstitious
Fears of an Indian Hunter.

rfEY -- ~ HL
A Mysterious Warning-The Superstftious
Fears of an Indian Hunter.
There are two principal ways in
Southern India of destroying the
jungle monarch. One is with heaters
and elephants gathered in array to
drive the game from his cover into
the open; and tho other is sitting up
all night over a ''kill' de, a dead cow
or goat struck down by the tiger, and
thus patiently waiting until he comes
to finish the carcass, when at least one
good shot is certain. The "Old Shik-
aree' tells a good story of this mid
night watching, which also illustrates
an Indian superstition. He asked his
native hunter on M occasion whether
it was true that he had sat up for a
tiger by the body of a man who had
been killed. The native nodded, and
in a whisper, stealing a glance along
the margin of the jungle, pausing to
listen now and then for a few seconds,
said it was in the hot weather five years
ago. and he had gone home to his vii
lage in Mysore with some rupees saved,
and a rifle. He had been idle for a few
days, when news came one morning to
the head man that a woman had seen
a fakir stricken down by a tiger not a
mile from hise door. From what the
woman told, the tiger was recognized
as a well-kaown man-eater, one that
had long been the dread of the lonely
stretch of road he haunted, the
beast being supposed to live pro-
tected by the souls of people be had
killed. Nevertheless, The huntsman
determined to shoot him if pos
sible; said his prayers, and
loading his gun with two bullets, when
evening came he went out alone to
avenge the poor pilgrim. 1t was such a
night as ours, with a bright moon and
nosound anywhere, and he soon reached
the spot and climbed into q tree directly
over the dead body, which was lying
horribly mangled and torn, with the
face downward, in the grass. 81 was
not afraid" said the shiksree, s.but
longed for the tiger to come. and l
lead not been in my tree for ten min
utes when some peacocks at roost in
the Jungle began to chatter and cry,
thus showing he was moving. A very
little while longer and he stole out Of
the shadow as silently as the moon
energies from behind a cloud, creeping
forward to begin his meal on the body
in the grass below. I made sure Of
killing him, and only waited to fire I'M
til he came a little closer. What I'm
going to say, sahib, you will not believe,
but it is as true as that / am here that
when the tiger had arrived within ten
yards of the body, and my finger was
just pressing the trigger, the dead man
slowly turned himself over, and raising
one of his shattered arms pointed to me
for as long q time as it would take to
count ten, w%hereupon the tiger with a
deep growl bounded back to the Jungle.
For q moment or two my heart was as
cold as the dew ON the barrel of my
Candahar rifle, but soon my blood
moved again and | was more than ever
determined to shoot the tiger in spite
of the spirits that seemed to care for
him. Twice more, sahib, did the lean,
NANCY beast come out of the Jungle
all hungry for the feast, and each time
the horribly mangled fakir sat up and
pointed at me in the bright moonlight.
At last, when the tiger had gone away
the third time, | came down from the
tree, and with the hunting-knife which
hung at my belt cut two strong BAN
boo pegs, and with these fastened down
to the ground the broken and crushed
hands of the victim; then, taking up
my position again, waited the next APP
pearance of the tiger. This is all my
story. sahib. The man-eater. came
once o from the gloom and crawled
up slowly to the dead pilgrim, who
writhed Intellectually to free his hands.
For a minute the tiger watched, and
then, hungry with waiting, seeing no
warning sign, sprang upon his bene-
factor with q roar like the thunder OF a
bursting monsoon. l hit him hard, so
that he fell helpless, and, sliding down
from my seat, I walked up to the beast
as he was rolling over and kicking,
and killed him with a shot through the
head."--C0r. London Telegraph.