The Marlboro democrat. [volume] (Bennettsville, S.C.) 1882-1908, 1907-04-26
"A Man EATER.
Hunters Story Of The Killing OF
a Dreaded Tiger,
HAPPENED IN INDIA.

Following the Trail Of the Brute
Through an Ipdian Jungle in Com
pany With a Native Whose Vito it
Had Carried or and Who Had
Como Insane From Grief, and Who
Died With JOY. 1,
1t was in India. / came out to
breakfast n 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 Bill in him, l think, writes
Francis Campbell in the Westminis-
ter Gazette. Anyhow, he came to
ask me il I'd go and shoot q man
man eater that had afflicted his vii
lage for two months and carried off
twenty persons, the last two being
his WI 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
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 a piece of muslin
he wore acrOs his body like a scarf
Ia frayed, torn piece of stuff, just
the color Of a wallhower, brownish
red. "Fifteen little ones and five
women hath this tiger killed out of
my people," he sad. "Will my lord
come and slayt?" Well, l said, I'd
have a try, making up my mind, for
all he said, that it vas 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 thought I'd like to pot
him. | got leave and we went off to-
gether, the man showing me the way.
soon spotted the fact that he was
mad--mad 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
, part of his lunacy was to be forever
caressing that torn muslin thing he
:, worc--kissing it and stroking it and
, talking to it as if the thing under
stood---and all about "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
q been promised to each other from
childhood and it had taken him near
ly all his life to save enough to buy
d her--pretty hard luck. The tiger
@ came on them as they were drawing
water--came out of the jungle be.
t hind them and took the woman. The
%lunatic had pursued it till brought
forcibly back by the villagers. How
t is that for luck---a naked, unarmeC
n man against a tiger? | began to re
spect my lunatic, and since he could
d not fire a gun | gave him an Afghan
v knife and showed him how to use it
The first knight we had no luck.
v The second night the brute dranl
+ a mile below its usual place. Blu
early on the dawn of the third day
o they came racing to tell us that the
Y tiger had carried away a mar from
G the well and had taken to the Jungle
n The l%unatic got out his knife ano
q wiped it. "To-day, Sahib," he sale
. quietly, eve shall kill him. will
lead the way" How he picked ur
! the track through the jungle | dom
f know; but he did. Then we lost it
but found it again in the river bee
: and followed it upward for about s
, mile, the stream growing thinner anC
and the bed narrower, till at last il
t. disappeared and we had to burst oul
, way through vines and bamboo prass
over a ladder of red hot stones.
, The lunatic was dripping from
every pore and painting like a motor,
but he never ceased to taunt the in
visible tiger, as if it were already
discriminating back to its remote an
cestry and hooking at the virtues of
tlgrcsses dead a thousand years ago.
and all the time lingering that end
of brown muslin. Suddenly we came
into a 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. | felt him coming and had
Just time to fling myself aside. BEST
if didn't go rolling down over the
water smoothcd stones into the cave
and arrived with my right hand
clutching the gun outfung beside
me. Why it didn't go off is a mys-
teay.
just had time to aim when nv
Lord crashed back, his spring having,
landed him among the bamboos. The
%lunatic was making such a Gendish
row with two flat stones, shriekinp
and believing simultaneously, that
the brute in the strong sunlight was
daZed---and furious, of course---and
made for his liar, open mouthcd and
snarling. | was standing right in the
entrance when he came at me. put
the charge down his throat. He came
on at me, but | expected him to
drop. He didn't. He mauled nv
arm pretty badly before then.
When came to | was propped IN
against the bank, dripping wet. The
lunatic must have flown, for the wa
ter was a good bit behind us, and
the tiger was still twitching. He was
sitting before it among the stones,
ealing 1T every name in his language
| That ,tync ln,l 90