The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-07-23

ion into the hut, the trembling Koomhi
closed the entrance and waited for day
light. But this he never saw, because,
after time, the tigress, embroidered by the
increasing darkness, returned, and fore
ing her way into the hut, carried OF the
uniuiurod man, who was doubtless doing
all he could 10 prevent the approach of
thebrute. The other, who was first seized,
died of his wounds, and sheer terror the
next day, after relating the story to those
who had found him
The party Of the shaib that Indian even
ing came across just such scene as is
here spoken Of As it came down the
hillside by the widening path TO the
Jungle village no sound whatever arose
from its few and humble habitatiOns.
Nobody came out to make SalutatiOns or
to offer supplies no cattle 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 overturned; 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 chat
ties at pOtter's were tumbled and
broken and. a sheet Of copper lay at the
blacksmiths forge half bent to make
some vessel but preCipitately abandoned.
Wherever one gazed there were signs of
u hasty fight ON the part Of the inhab-
tants, who did not seem to have left
anybody TO represent them. Yes! there
was one silent and melancholy represen-
tatiye, and the sudden appearance of her
would have startled tho party very much
more than it did but for discovery made
by the sahib's ghOrawallah-the groom
plDgn Inv TbA silent and RnnfN tpmnlR
There was muddy patch There in the
square, from which the last of the rain
water had but recently dried up, and in
the black slime so left were deeply inn
printed the pubs Of an evidently i'm
mense tiger. 1t was, of course, evident
now to the Englishman, 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
Dessolate beyond expression was little
unpeoplcd place" of the hamlet. and the
look of the helpless red god staring from
his portico upon the huts that he could
not protect, and the excitement 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 royes to dry, they came upon that
secret. Across the threshold of a mud
hut, evidently dragged Off from the
broken charpoy on the earthen floor, lay
the body of a woman, torn on the brown
delicate neck and along the shoulders and
breast with long red claw marks. A
dead infant, also mangled by a savage
bite, and with one of it's arms nearly
torn off, lay half concealed under the
corpse, the appearance of the bodies
showing that they had been only lately
killed. No one could doubt what had
killed them. The sign manual upon THEN
bodies was surely that of the royal beast
who often in this way disputes the right
of his human rival In India, roars TO scorr
the illusion that man is master Of created
things.
The sahib's party was badly equipped
for tiger shooting, and passed, not with
out anxiety and the closing up of The
three or four servants and coolies
through the outskirts of the evicted vii
lage. At aug moment her ladyship tho
tigress or his lordship the tiger, who haC
taken possession of the place, might
emerge from a grain store or a cow pen
or even from some milk bush or jowar
patch. to ask the travellers what bushes:
they had upon the royal property. The
Englishman hastily put bullets into both
barrels of his shot gun and walked his
horse as quickly as his men cnuld follow
out the Inflated gaum
At it's outskirts they were astonished
to hear a voice high above their heads
which came, as they afterward found
from a Young Hindoo low caste man sit
ting concealed in the branches OF large
mango tree, from which could be seer
both entrances of the village. He had
made u rude platform in a fork Of the
tree. and watched on it with the long
barrel of q matchbox protrudtng, and by
his side an earthen jar of water. They
invited him to come down and tell them
the meaning Of the extraordinary spocta
Gle they had witnessed. He descended, anC
informed them that for months past
his village had been infested and per
secuted by a tigress which, after killing
cattle and goats, had slain and partly
eaten three or four children outside the
hamlet, and had taken, during the past
eight or nine DAYS, TO entering the village
at night and carrying off somebody Oh
other sleeping, as the Hindoos do, outside
their huts under the veraudas. The wo
man slain that morning with her bah,
was the wife of the poor matchbox man
ana he udu DtICUtd ullldJAI III tAlb VI ~
hoping to avenge her death when the sa
hibs party passed.
It was too serious u case not TO be re
ported in the proper quarters, and an OK
petition of practised tiger shooters wa!
equipped among the officers at the near
est station. The beast was tracked anC
was killed after receiving eleven bullets
and then it turned out that she had half
grown cub which had lost a limb, anC
thus the maternal affection of the fero
cious parent had driven it TO these des
perate ways
Indeed, the spectacle Of that village wal
full of philosophical suggestiveness. Thu
dead human mother had been slain by
reason of the very Same instinct which
had made her seek in vain to preserve
her child from the attack of the tigress
driven to its wits end to find food for il.
own helpless offspring The tigress was
in her way as tender a parent as the low
ing mother whom she murdered, anC
then, besides. there was the whole village
dcpopulated, to make one wonder what
20.