The National tribune., 1901-04-25

besides knowing where to look for danger,
he narrowly escaped being killed outright.
Not even native sight can separate a
crouching jaguar from those colors by
to do so then, but the herbage quivered,
and that saved him. No cat, except an
Asiatic panther, can keep perfectly still
when prey is at hand, and the delight of
bloodshed thrills its fierce heart. These
creatures tremble, twitch their tails and
purr; they cannot help it, and several in
stances of escape IN this way are on rec
ord. Then the man started back as his
antagonist sprung; its impetus carried the
beast past him, and its stroke did not take
effect. From their nature such conflicts
cannot last long; one way or another they
batants swung rapidly round front to front
slash from that sharp, heavy blade cleft
the Jaguar's face and muzZle, while his
taions rent this gallant Indians groin,
tearing downwards along the thigh.
He fell with lacerated arteries squirting,
but lived to tell his story. AS for SCARED
face" as the brute was henceforth called,
that wound sufficed. 1t drew off without
attempting anything further, and as their
demon-tiger's tracks were by now as well
known to all as their comrades counte-
nances, the trail showed what animal it
was that committed this third murder.
You might as well expect to find an
African village without fetich-man as
one of these Indian settlements that had
no charm maker. Immediately upon this
fight becoming known, necromancers pre-
pared spells to make the jaguar's wounds
fatal. In few days one announced that
the pest was dead, but also said if they
did not want to be haunted by its ghost
all had better come to him for amulets-
of which he forthwith sold quantities.
Everybody wanted this beast dead, and
consequently believed it was so. The sit
uation had been intolerable; these people
knew nothing OF those horrors that befell
elsewhere, and beside which their own
misfortunes were insignificant, indeed.
Scared face" himself must have lived
some time on insect larya, small fish, etc,
before he was able to bite; on recovering
however, matters became worse than ever
Nobody need calculate upon a cats con-
sistency; an individual animal will be
timid and vacillating today; at another
time it exhibits tenacity of purpose close
ly approaching desperation. Man-eating
cats above all others are those least de-
pendable in any way. 1t is marked
feline trait, for example, to become dis
couraged at a check; and, unless mad
dened by being wounded, these animals
usually draw off when openly opposed. Yet
the same lion has broken into an African
village again and again, despite resist
ance; Col. Barras was attacked in an out
house by two panthers; Gordon Cumming
the other in Burmah-fired shot after shot,
though without aim, on account of dark
ness, at lion and tiger respectively, while
the first devOured one of his Hottentots
and the last pony. There is also an old
tenantless monastery among Sat-Pura for
ests, whose few remaining inmates fled
after most OF them had been eaten by
single tiger. Such exceptional instances
might be cited indefinitely; moreover, here
was another, for so soon rs this jaguar got
well, he came back and killed the woman
sucked that unfortunate creatures blood
at her own door.
For a day these people raved, threat
ened, cursed and danced; then they quiet
ed down completely. Their false prophet
escaped from popular indignation at the
first intimation of what had happened,
while the man who told us this tale went
away shortly afterwards. His dreams be-
came very bad, he said, and he regarded
them as warnings. No doubt a demon
could go anywhere, but experience proved
that evil spirits had preferences for par
ticular places, of which this was one
Considering whnt occurred and how he
reasoned about it, his departure is not sur
prising; indeed, all circumstances attend
ant upon successful man-eater's career
are so fraught with mystery and horror
that it is perfectly natural for savage or
barbaric men to look upon it as demonia-
cal.