y have now. The rice-fields have
been abandoned and the house of course deserted, and of recent years the
tigers have changed their ways, for, ten years ago, I killed a tigress
close to the site of the abandoned house, in the neighbourhood of which it
had been killing cattle.

I have said that forest tigers are rarely dangerous to man, and by that I
mean the tigers inhabiting the long range of forests stretching along the
south-western side of India at varying distances from the sea, but in the
interior of Mysore very dangerous man-eaters have existed, and I have been
shown places which people made up parties to cross. One man-eater, at
least--for it was assumed that the deaths were the work of one
animal--killed, I am informed on good authority, about 500 people. Two
tigers were killed at one time, and after that the slaughter of human
beings ceased, though it was never ascertained which was the culprit.
There is no man-eater at present in Mysore. Mr. Sanderson says that bold
man-eaters have been known to enter a village and carry off a victim from
the first open hut. The boldest attempt I ever knew of was mentioned to me
by my Nilgiri planter friend, and it occurred in this way. In the middle
of the night there were loud cries of "Tiger!" from a hut near his house
which was occupied by some of his people. He always kept a loaded gun near
him at night, and at once rushed out and fired, when two men came up to
the bungalow and declared that a tiger had begun to claw the thatch off
the roof of the hut in order to get at them. This was alarming to the
planter, as, if proved, many of his people might have left the place, and
he told the men to sleep in his veranda, and that he would see in the
morning if their story was true. He then went to bed and rose very early
the following morning, before anyone was about, and found that the story
was quite true, and saw the tracks of the tiger. These he carefully
obliterated, and then went back to bed. Then when he rose at his usual
time he roused the men and asked to be shown the track of the tiger. This
of course they could not do, and he laughed off the whole story, and
treated it as a fanciful illusion. I find many stories in sporting books
of the great courage and determination often shown by natives in
connection with tigers, but my Nilgiri planter friend told me one which
was really astonishing. A tiger one day had carried off a Toda cattle
herd, and his friend or relative was