The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-03-12


perfect figure to match her lovely
face and the carriage Of a goddess
This she had inherited and per-
fected by her daily walk from hei
fathers house TO the river bank
with large and heavy brass lotah
of water balanced on her head. One
ma1Yeled that so slender a neck
could bear so heavy a weight; but
Soni strobe unconcernedly along the
jungle path straight as lance and
as upright as though she bore
feathers on her head.
When she passed the spot where
l was encamped / always followed
her with my eyes, for she was the
poetry Of motion incarnate, and in
her colored sari a moving picture
very moving
NEAR this same path that led
from the village to the ford, sat
a being as different from Soni as
one person can be from another. He
was old, he was ugly, and he was
very, very wise. Unlike Soni again
he did not move with perfect grace
and poise, for he did not move al
all-apparently.
No one had ever seen him stand
up, much less walk; and he had beer
seated beneath that same pipal tree
for as long as the oldest villagei
could remember. He was a. faquir
a Holy Man, and a genuine one.
And just as no one had ever seer
Tulsiram Jagganath walk, so no one
had ever seen him do anything
wrong, or heard him say anything
evil.
He just was.
And, to the simple villagers, any
one who renounces the world, and
neither does, possesses, nor desires
anything, is ipso facto holy, vener-
able and to be cherished and wor-
SHIPPED
l had many long conversations
with Tulsiram Jagganath, man Of
profound intellect and wide erudi-
ton, but with point of view sc
different from mine that we were
mentally, poles asunder.
But his knowledge and his powers
impressed me decoly-so much sc
that 1 Staked my life on his We
racity, or rather on my belief in the
truth and accuracy of his clairvoy-
ance and prophetic powers.
T MADE a tour through the dis
il trict, a sportmans paradise, fish
ing for mahsfer, watching animals
by moonlight at the j. gle drink
ing places, and calcula .ng, with the
help of my shikaris, the shy aborig-
inals, difficult to approach as the
wild beasts of the forest.
And when I returned to my camp
found that stark tragedy stalked
the hitherto happy village. Beauti-
full Soni and five other women had
been killed. So had a boy and
two grown men, wood-cutters who
worked in the jungle.
Terror reigned; no-one dared go
abroad after dark, and few cared
to do so by day, for the man
eating tiger that had so suddenly
appeared and so quickly wrought
this terrible havoc, had taken three
of his victims at high noon.
And beautiful Soni was dead
killed horribly. Her father, her
brothers and the young man who
hoped to be her husband and was
her lover, had seen mangled mess
that had been SOM; a crushed skull
cage-work of exposed ribs, barred
thigh bone; sight to drive the be-
holder insane and all the men who
saw it had loved Soni.
So, think, had l.
My blood boiled when I thought
1V1 of her, mangled and torn and
tortured by that foul brute, toe
lazy, too cunning, or too old to hunt
his natural prey. Was there nothing
else for his great claws and cruel
fangs to tear but my sweet dainty
SOM?
That night I dreamed of her; I
heard her dreadful screams; and I
saw that which, to my infinite re-
lief, awakened me, trembling, sweat
Ing, and sick with terror and disgust.
And, while 1 slept, the tiger took
toll of that poor village community
again. 1t was a man this time-a
man indeed-for he had gone out,
armed with nothing but his wood
mans ak. to look for the man-eater,
and to avenge his sweetheart. 1t was
Soni's lover.
A village woodman's ak is a ter
rible weapon in the hands of those
experts, and can inflict CHASTITY
wounds. But this of the odds; a
naked man, armed with a small
short ak. against Bengal tiger.
And poor Bagu had never struck
a blow. for the tiger had sprung
upon him from behind, as all the
signs quite clearly showed.
VXTHILE I sat, angry and miser-
w able, at the door of my tent
the chela (servant and disciple) of
Tulsiram Jagganath, the holy
sannyasi, approached, salaamed and
begged that I would honor his mas
ter with a visit, as he had something
most important to say to me.
I went at once.
Our conversation, which I re-
member almost verbatim to this day
went as follows:
"Sahib, you must STAY this tiger.
1t is a devil-tiger and no villager
can kill it."
Holy One, would give anything
to be able to kill it. But how can
sit up for tiger that will not take
cattle, and that does not return to
its human kill. The villagers tell
my shikari that it seizes a human
being, eats a hearty meal at once,
and does not return. 1t is indeed a
devil-tiger-and devil of a tiger.
too. j.. j.. What can I do? Where can