Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-06-16

natives had to use their poles over his head and beat him back. The scar was plainly to be seen, and the rejoicing over his capture was intense. By means of slip nooses, which were finally worked over his head and legs, we hauled him up into the cage, and later on he found his way to Amsterdam and Paris Naturalists judged him to be about 20 years old, and last year, when heard direct from him, he was one of the attractions in nagerie traveling in Prussia
 No lion of any age or experience will walk into a log trap built and bated to catch him, but tile oldest and wisest tiger will. All our tigers were captured between the Ganges river and the mountains to the north. This sparsely settled district had not then been, penetrated by sportsmen, and the natives felt themselves helpless against the man eaters. Between Benares and the mountains half dozen villages were abandoned inside of three months owing to the presence of tigers, and there was n district forty miles long by ten broad which two man eaters had actually reduced to Q wilderness. A lion may roam over district fifty or hundred miles in extent, and may travel twenty-five or thirty miles in single night; but tiger hangs to one locality as long as he can get a living, and unless in the dry season, when water is scarce, he &vill not travel further than necessary to find his food The natives dig pits for them, and once in a while one is thus captured, but tiger in his prime has all the suppleness of a cat He can gather and spring away even as he feels the ground giving way under his feet, and thus any vic tim is sure to be old and stiff, and of no value to menagerie. Isaw one at Benares which had been caught in pit, and he was near sighted and almost toothless with old age He might have knocked man down with his paw, but I doubt if he could have eaten him.
 When we caught the particular tiger am now about to write about, we were recom- mended to go from the small village of Woopur, on the Ganges, north to the village of Ghokda, distance of about thirty miles, A man eater of immense size had spread ter TOT all over the district. This one beast as we were officially informed, had driven 5000 natives out of the district and broken up five villages. He had i'll two years killed 300 peo- pie and had knocked over oxen and sheep by the hundred just for fun. To prove his strength, a head man told us that the tiger had one evening sprung upon a large OK fast ened to Q tree in tho outskirts of the village The weight of the OK was given at 900 pounds, but the tiger knocked him down with one blow, tore him loose from the tree, breaking a very stout grass rope ill so doing, and then drew the body nearly mile over ground along which no native could have made his way with twenty-fve pounds of corn on his back.
 We reached the village to find that many of the people had fled in terror, woman having been killed and eaten two days be- fore, and our appearance was hailed with the greatest joy. When 1t was found, however, that we proposed to capture the tiger alive instead of seeking to kill him, tho natives were in despair. Ono and all declared that the beast was so cunning, crafty nnd fero- cious. that human intelligence could not cope with him. That same night we had sam- pie of the tigers character. Several great fires had been built in the center of the vil- lage, and while nearly everybody had gath cred around, the man eater entered the vil- lage, walked into a hut, and there seized an old man who was lying ill. This hut was not over 100 feet from our circle, and all of us saw the tiger as he came out with his bur den He had seized the man by the right arm, near the elbow, and had given him a twist which flung him over his back. As we started up at the shrieks of the victim the tiger trotted off coolly as you please, growling a little over the f1rebrands thrown at him, but evidently having not the least fear of the crowd. We could hear the cries
 
 and, as we ascertafned next day, the tiger had dropped him several times within a mile, either to wait for us to come up, or from an inclination to turn back and seek another victim.
 We were astir at any early hour next morning. The tigers lair was in piece of woods to the west of the village, and very likely in a rocky ravine in the center of the forest. We soon found that he used one path in approaching the village. and as he had eaten nothing but human flesh for. several months he might be expected to come and 20 by this path as long as any one was left in the village. Midway between his den and the village we built stout log pen just to one side of the path, and when it was com pleted the door was held up by a cord run ming inside to spindle on which the bait was to be attached. Wehad everything ready by midafternoon, and then came the question of bait. Nothing but human flesh would do. but that did not worry the natives a bit. | | think tho head man would have ordered a sacrifice but for piece of good luck. An old woman died about noon, and we obtained permission to make such use of the body as we desired. It seemed horrible thing to do, but if we were to rid the district of the l beast we must entice him into the trap. The body was carried there, seated in an upright position behind the spindle and dashed to it, and then Q dog was tied up in one corner of the pen. A second dog was killed and his blood scattered over the leaves and earth about the pen, and just before dark we re turned to the village, After supper orders were issued for every person to remain in doors for the night, and to keep as quiet as possible, and by the time 1t was fully dapk the village was as quiet as Q graveyard. It was about 10 o'clock when we heard from the man eater. There was a yell from the dog and howl from the tiger in one breath, and we felt sure we had trapped him. It would not do to move out, however, and such was 1 the suppressed excitement that no one in the village slept an hour.
 Soon after daylight couple of natives l went on scout, and in the course of half an hour they came running back with the news that the man eater was safe in the pen. H. had killed the dog and torn the dead body ir pieces, and was reported in 0 furious rage
 After breakfast the cage was carried up, anc
 we had little difficulty in transferring tho
 beast. When we came tog get good look a
 him everybody was ama1ed. He was tn.