The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1907-04-24
A MAN EATER.
Hunters Story OF The Killing Of
A Dreaded Tiger,
HAPPENED I'm india.

Following the Trail Of the Brute
Through an Indian Jungle in Com
pany With q Native Whose Wife it
Had Carried OF and Who Had
Gone Insane From Grief, and Who
Died With Joy.
It was in India. | came out to
breakfast one morning and found a
chap numbering on the veranda--
queer sort Of niger; never saw any
thing like him before or since-good
deal Of Bhil in him, / think, writes
Francis Campbell in the Westminis-
ter Gazette. Anyhow, he came to
ask me if I'd go and shoot a man
man eater that had afflicted his vii
| lage for two months and carried off
twenty persons, the last two being
his own wife and sister. He was the
headman Of the village. He had
come himself to make quite sure Of
the sahib's hearing all about it. 1t
was a great tiger--very great and
and powerful--not old or mangry,
he would answer for it. He had seen
the tiger when it carried off his wife.
And all the while he talkee he kept
folding the ends Of piece of muslin
he wore across his body like scarf
"a frayed, torn piece of stuff, Just
the color of a wallfower, brownish
red. Fifteen little ones and five
women hath this tiger killed out of
my people," he said. 'SWill my lord
come and slay it??'' Well, l said, I'd
have a try, making up my mind, for
all he said, that it was both ancient
and NANCY. Tigers don't take to
man eating till they've lost their
teeth. However, this particular
beast seemed to come it rather
strong, and I thought I'd like to pot
him. I got leave and we went off to-
gether, the man showing me the way.
soon spotted the fact that he was
mad-nad as a halter. If the tiger
had taken his wife it had also taken
his brains; he was a bit creepy as a
travelling companion. and the oldest
mart of his lunacv was to be forever
caressing that torn muslin thing he
wore---kissing it and stroking it and
talking to it as if the thing under
stood-and ali about s'My Lord the
Tiger" and the sudden destruction
that was coming on him. When we
got to the village didn't wonder he
was dotty.
He had been married only a week
and the wife was, according to the
village, a speckless beauty. They had
been promised to each other from
childhood and it had taken him near
| ly all his life to save enough to buy
her-pretty hard luck. The tiger
came on them as they were drawing
water-came out Of the jungle be-
hind them and took the woman. The
lunatic had pursued it till brought
forcibly back by the villagers. How
| is that for luck--a naked, unarmed
man against a tiger? began to re-
spect my lunatic, and since he could
not fire gun I gave him an Afghan
knife and showed him how to use it.
The first knight we had no luck.
The second night the brute drank
mile below it's usual place. But
early on the dawn Of the third day
they came racing to tell us that the
tiger had carried away a man from
the well and had taken to the jungle:
The lunatic got out his knife and
wiped it. To-day, Sahib, s." he said
quietly, eve shall kill him. I will
lead the way" How he picked up
the track through the jungle l don't
know; but he did. Then we lost it,
but found it again in the river bed
and followed it upward for about a
mile, the stream growing thinner and
and the bed narrower, till at last it
disappeared and we had to burst our
way through vines and bamboo grass
over a ladder of red hot stones.
The lunatic was dripping from
every pore and painting like motor;
but he never ceased to taunt the in
visible tiger, as if it were already
dead-harking back to its remote an
cestry and mocking at the virtues Of
tigresses dead a thousand years ago.
and all the time lingering that end
of brown muslin. Suddenly we came
into e little level where the now dried
up stream poured over a ledge of
rock, followed out beneath into a
narrow cave, cool and shadowy. And
there, crouched to spring--my Lord
the Tiger. l felt him coming and had
just time to fling myself aside. Blest
if I didn't go rolling down over the
water s,noothed stones into the cave
and arrived with my right hand
clutching the gun outfung beside
me. Why it didn't go off is mys-
teay.
l just had time to aim when my
Lord crashed back, his spring having
landed him among the bamboos. The
lunatic was making such a fendish
row with two fiat stones, shrieking
and believing simultaneously, that
the brute in the strong sunlight was
dazed--and furious, Of course-and
made for his liar, open mouthed and
snarling. was standing right in the
entrance when he came at me. I put
the charge down his throat. He came
on at me, but I expected him to
drop. He didn't. He mauled my
arm pretty badly before then.
When l came to | was propped up
against the bank, dripping wet. The
lunatic must have flown, for the wa
ter was good bit behind US, and
the tiger was still twitching. He was
sitting before it among the stones,