The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1893-08-08
a DESOLATE SCENE.
,AstspiAs VILLAGE DEPoPuLATEp BY
A MAN EATING TIGER.
The Inhabitants of = Native village Driven
From Their Homes by tho Ferocious Oar
ing of Bold and BIoodthirsty Ruler Of


ing of Bold and BIoodthirsty Ruler or
the Jungies.
As the party Of sahib one Indian even
ing came down the hillside by the widen
ing path to the jungle village, no sound
whatever arose from its few and humble
habitationA Nobody came out TO make
salutation or to offer supplies. No cat
tie were perceived wandering about, no
children, no birds, except indeed many
vultures upon the tree in the square and
upon the temple roof The pots in the
grain dealers shop were empty and over
turned; o piece Of cloth just begun was
left with broken threads upon the loom
In the next hut. On the other side OF the
way the chatties ct q potter's were tum-
bled and broken, and sheet Of copper
lay at the blacksmith's forge half bent to
mako some vessel. but precipitately aban-
doned. Wherever one gazed there were
signs Of hasty fight on the part of the
inhabitants, who did not seem to have
left anybody to represent them.
Yes, there was one silent and melan-
choly representative, and the sudden ap-
pearance of her would have startled the
party very much more than it did but
for q discovery made by the sahib's
ghorawallah-the groom-close by the
silent and empty temple. There was a
muddy patch there in the square. from
which the last of the rainwater had but
recently dried mp, and in the black slime
so left were deeply imprinted the 'puds''
nf arrtda txys y,axr
Of course evident now to the English.
) man and those with him that the striped
terror which left those footmarks had
given the villagers notice to quit and
!. was somewhere or other near at hand
in practical possession of the fee simple
: Of the village.
Desolate beyond expression was the
little unpeopled place" of the hamlet,
/ and the look Of the helpless red god
l staring from his portico upon the huts
: that he could not protect, and the ex-
i citement of the horrible vultures perched
:, on the cotton trees, aware, no doubt, of
! the deadly secret of the place, for round
!, the corner, by the dyer's shop, where
two or three newly stained turban cloths
still hung upon walls to dry, they came
upon that secret. Across the threshold
i, of mud hut, evidently dragged of
. from the broken charpoy on the earthen
: floor, lay the body of woman, torn on
the delicate brown neck and along the
shoulders and breast with long red claw
marks. A dead infant, also mangled by
: @ savage bite, lay half concealed under
!, the corpse. the appearance of the bodies
4 showing that they had only been lately
!. killed. No one could doubt what had
r killed them. The sign manual upor
! their bodies was surely that of the royal
q beast who often in this way disputes the
n right of his human rival in India and roari
= to scorn the illusion that man is master
a of created things. ......
!. The sahib's party was badly equipped
: for tiger shooting and passed not with
\ out anxiety and the closing up of tn,
. three or four servants and coolies through
8 the outskirts of the evicted village. A.
/ any moment her ladyship the tigress o.
I his lordship the tiger, who had taker
q possession Of the place, might emerg,
J, from grain store or a COW pen, or ever
t from some milk bush or jowari patch, t.
|, ask the travellers what business they hat
upon the royal property. The English
man hastily put bullets into both barrel.
/. of his shotgun and walked his horse a,
I quickly as his men could follow out Of
= !. the i'll fated saum.
n At its outskirts they were astonishet
IL to hear voice high above their head
}. which came, as they afterward found
a a from young Hindoo low caste man sit
il ting concealed in the branches of larg
!: mango tree from which could be seer
both entrances of the village. He hat
made rude platform in fork of tn
tree and watched on it with the lonI
Y barrel of matchbox protruding and b,
D his side an earthen jar Of water. The,
invited him to come down and to tel
them the meaning of the extraordinar
spectacle they had witnessed. He de
q scended and informed them that 70
a, months past his village had been infeste
d and prosecuted by tigress which, afte
I, killing cattle and goats, had slain an
p partly eaten three or four children out
side the hamlet and had taken durin
lie the past eight or nine days to enterin
g the village at night and carrying Of
is somebody or other sleeping, as the Hir
docs do, outside their huts under tn
he verandas. The woman slain that morn
- ing with her baby was the wife of tn
in poor matchbox man, and he had perche
~ himself in the tree hoping to avenge he
n. death when the sahib's party passed.
IL, ~ 1t was too serious q case not to be r,
~ ported in the proper quarters, and a
IS expedition of practiced tiger shooter
was equipped among the officers at tt
nearest station. The beast was tracke
and was killed after receiving ii blu
en- let's, and then it turned out that 81
Y had half grown cub which had lost
adj limb, and thus the maternal affection {
On the ferocious parent had driven it
re- these desperate ways Indeed the spe
n, tacle of that village was full Of phil
en- sophical suggestiveness. The dead h.
cd man mother had been slain by reason
le- the very same instinct which had mac
- her seek in vain to preserve her chi
d, from the attack of the tigress, driven
m, it's wits ends to find food for its oW
ne helpless offspring The tigress was
no her way as tender parent as the 10
sci ing mother whom she murdered, al
then besides there was the whole "
lage depopulated to make one wond
~ what sort of world it would have be,
mr.. if, as might well have happened, tige
IN. had evolved as masters of the globe /
IT, stead of men.-Edwin Arnold in Londt
wo Telegraph.
o
he China makes poor show in the jor
cat nalistic world. For all its 10000, o
et inhabitants it has only "a newspapers.