Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1890-06-14
A CALL FROM \ TIGER.

While at Katamand i'll the Nepal dis
trict, with Captain White, tho American
tiger and serpent destroyer, a de,esdtion
came in from village called AiIwar,
thirty miles away, to get some OF the
English officers to go out and destroy a
man-eater who had rendered himself
terror to a large district. Hearing of the
presence of the American, they came 10
him instead. The government bounty
on the head of a Il an-eater at that time
was $50 The will gers offered to make
up sixty additional, and to give the cap
tain a COW and four goats In ten min
utes he had closed bargain, and on the
afternoon of the second day we reached
Aliwar 1t was situated on the Scindwala
river. which is one Of the tributaries of
the Ganges, and within fifteen miles of
the foothills of tbs, Himalaya mountains.
The country was badly broken and COW
cred with heavy forest and jungle, and
the captain pronounced it the finest
tiger range in India. The village con-
tanned about 700 inhabitants, and had
considerable commerce with points
lower down on tt 9 stream. 1t was on
the bank of the river strung out for half
a mile, and the cleared space thus oc-
cupied, was not more than quarter OF
n mile wide. A days work on the part
of the villagers would have been suffi-
cient to have cleared away the cover
under which the tiger approached, but
not a move was made. The beast had
appeared about three weeks previous,
and the first intimation of his presence
cost a woman her life. She was cooking
at fire on the north side of the village,
not over ten feet from the door at which
her husband and three children sat, when
a tiger, who had come out of ravine
and kept the cover of some bushes,
sprang upon her. This was just at sun
down. The spring of the tiger knocked
IL woman into the fire. He seized her
by the foot and drew her out, and, al
though her clothing was on fire, he took
hold of her shoulder gave his body
twist to throw the weight on his back,
and was off at a run. The woman must
have been killed by the blow of his paw
as he sprung, as she made no cry.
In the four weeks which had elapsed
since the man-eater appeared, he had
carried off seven people, and for dis
tance of ten miles around, the people
were in great terror. There were half a
dozen old muskets in Aliwar, and those
had been loaded and discharged at the
ravine at high noon in hopes to scare
the tiger away. Two nights previous
to our arrival, the tiger had entered
hut through an open window, seized
boy 10 years of age, and made his exit
by the door. The cries of the boy awoke
every one in the village and could be
heard long way up the ravine. He
had not come the night before, but was
expected to show up on this, the night
of our arrival. We reached the place
about two hours before sundown, and as
land he made his plans. Two huts on
the northern edge of the village were
abandoned to us. The captain and one
of his men took one, and a second native
and myself occupied the other. All had
guns, and the plan was to watch for the
tiger and pot him. The hut l had be-
longed to storage merchant. 1t was a
solid building made of small logs and a
heavy thatch roof. The ground floor,
which was the only one, occupied a
space of about 16x24 feet. 1t had one
door and two windows. The door and
one window were in front and the other
window at the rear. Sixteen feet from
the door a bamboo partition ran across
the room. In this rear room goods be-
longing to various parties were slowed
at fixed charge, while the family oc-
cupied the front room as a living room.
The door in the partition slid up and
down in grooves.
When we began our watch we fastened
the door securely. The window beside
ii was an opening two feet square, pro-
tected only by cloth curtain. Tie one
at the rear had wooden blind, and this
was fastened on the outside.
1t was a hot and sultry night, and wo
had a jar of water and brandy i'll tho
storeroom. The front window c,m-
manded good view of the country over
which the tiger was expected to ap-
proach, and for two hours l p"ered and
IiStana1 and waite6 but ,yithuut rnN-n",l