The National tribune., 1897-12-23
THE STORY OF A TIGER.
BY DE-. j. IL. PORTER.

Strange and awesome sounds arose from
the da.k valley above which our camp
stood Ii was a voice that shattered the
silence: one felt rather than heard It's IN
donations, and the e were too lmpreSSlNel!
suggestive of sometE ng or anything INTO
which that vague body or supersutl0uS
feeling latent in all men might be embocIcc
not 10 touch the keynote OF terror. Fear >
deepest root springs from sense oi strange
ness. Nothing is 80 awful as the unknown,
and thus no danger at human hands pos
sesses the appalling power OF that threat
ened by beaSt-it comes upon us as II
from another world.
In mere cadence and volume what we
heard were deep, fiat, heavy conclusions
like the dropping OF earth masses into an
abyss. But it was not this, for one OF our
elephants trumpeted nervously and FLASHED
his chains al those sounds.
Lopez, our new Hindu Portuguese cook,
gasped: What is thai Yusuf Khan, in
the name OF heaven what is that?"
1T is the red one, replied our famous
shikarri, his eyes cleaning in the fire.
light; The calls his mate"
al Yusuf"' shouted Ianton. holding
back his tent flaps; maybe that's the big
tiger himself"
Truly yes" the hunter replied: 'it is as
my lord plcaSes. didn't think he was
here, though, before Brudinrath trumpeted.
He knows that devil-bcast, and bark Alla
we will find his trail to morrow nicefully B"
To bark hack a little the red one, as our
chief shilIari called him, had then achieved
celebrity. Beginning life as cattlclifter
he subsequently, turned 10 man-eating
and what that means in the way OF horror
despair and death, may be understood
even from such rrosaic sources as annual
reports OF the PreSidencicS or Sir ". w.
Hunters Gazetteer for India.
At this time that tiger was keeping every
human Icing within n large and populous
icfr ipf in TtrS -haT1
devoted to killing stock this malign brute
mostly sucked blood instead of consuming
beef. and so destroyed three or four times
more property than an ordinary marauder
so now devilish eccenuicity marked his
murders.
He heset villages, and broke into houses
Natives sworc that men caught alone had
been ''chivied" till they died OF fright: and
similarly, every Arab n North Africa be
heved this was occasionally a custom with
lions before French occupation drove the
desert sultan" south.
No doubt this beast had put people to
death in strange and frightful ways He
walked in darkness like the pestiIence
inspiring a greater horror than any pest
and also displayed in perfection those
characteristic traits of his kind-desperate
hardihOod, extreme wariness, and perpetual
activity.
Throughout rural India its inhabitants
expect TO pay to ] from their herds, and the
ordinary cattlc-lllter - seldom moleSted
This ones destructiveness however eX-
cited Indignation, and Engl;shmep had
been invited 10 hunt him. That was
done unsuccessfully several times. Once
brought 10 hay. he yet escaped after biting
our old tuszer Brudinrath severely and
tearing out his right eve.
In a moment Of weakness I interviewed
that venerable animals mahout on this
subject; but :; was contrary 10 the laws of
nature that he should not lie and knew
that beforehand. BY virtue Of the eternal
fitness OF things. an elcphant-driveT ex-
emplifies that finished rascality which
scoundrels west of Suez vainly strive To at
tain. But apart from general depravity,
and in the matter of mendacity alone a
mahout's position IS solitary among the
sons OF men. His spontaneous gush and
irradiation of falsehood go far beyond the
SCOPE OF any commonplace unimaginative
and incomplete western liars range
AT peep Of day Iusuf, with his subordi-