unded man, the toddyman, who had taken heart and come down, slunk
quietly out of the jungle, and startled some of the party not a little, as
they thought that it was perhaps the tiger coming down on them again.
However, this toddyman reported that the tiger was still almost in the
same spot where he had been lying when he made his attack: and I then
proposed we should go into the jungle, and see how we liked the look of
him. But the tiger had given such indications of temper that the main body
of the people seemed to have no desire to see him again, and I think that
only ten (and those mostly my own people) accompanied me. As I was,
Europeanly speaking, single-handed, this may have seemed an imprudent
course, and no doubt it was not altogether unattended with danger; but it
luckily turned out that the tiger was stone dead, though he was lying in
such a natural position that we had some doubts as to whether he might
not be shamming, even when we got within fifteen yards of him. As we were
skinning the tiger, the wounded man (who had by that time only been
carried a few hundred yards) expired: so, observing that it was "written
on his forehead,"[45] we took up our man and our skin, and went home.

These instances of infringement of caste rules will show the reader the
way in which they are sometimes abandoned; and I could mention other minor
points where I have seen them occasionally abandoned. But not only are
these rules thus, on urgent occasions, summarily set aside, but within a
very short distance I have observed an alteration of custom. For instance,
on our side of the river which separates our county from the next, neither
the farmers nor the toddy-drawers will eat of an animal that has even been
touched after death by a Pariah; whereas, on the other side of the river,
the Pariahs who came out shooting not only touched, but carried a couple
of wild boars we had killed. And yet the people on one side of the river
are exactly of the same caste as those on the other. But the fact seems to
be, that many of the minor points of what is called caste law have arisen
from some accident, and in the course of time have hardened into local
customs.

And here, before bringing this chapter to a close, I find it impossible to
refrain from again alluding to the numerous instances where caste has been
made the common scapegoat of every Indian difficulty. What is the meaning
of this? What is the meaning of that? Why won't the natives