MAN EATER'S VICTIMS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIII, 31 July 1929, Page 8

MAN EATER'S VICTIMS

INTELLIGENT TIGRESS JUNGLE QUEEN'S 108 KILLS INCARNATION OF DEITY" One.of the most, thrjlling stories of the jungle—the hunt fur a man-eating. tigress which in four years killed no | fewer than 168 persons—has just been lolil for Ihe first lime. | For thi.s beast's destruction tho Beii-1 gal Government offered a reward, and a writer in the "Empire Review,' 1 K A. | Giles!, relates how he fired the first shot. j The habit of tho man-eater was to' follow Ihe sound of the woodcutters' \ hatchets, prowl about in the vicinity| till sonic native came down from a, tree, j ami then to carry him off, he states.' Even a crowd of people was not immune from attack, for, when hungry; the tigress would (barge into the crowd, and in the confusion which ensued tin onlooker would fall an easy victim. Day or night made no .difference. The superstitious natives called her a Deota, or incarnation of the Deity. They also said that) _' having eaten so many human beings, the tigress had imbibed! human intelligence! On one occasion, however, the tigress returned to.her "kill," presumably because (the writer suggests) the monsoon, when sportsmen do not go out hunting, put her' off her guard. "L took up my position on a tree about forty Vards from tho 'kill,' " he says. "'To keep my rifle sights clear I had to .keep wiping off the raindrops of a heavy tropical shower.' "in about half an hour the l huge } ellow pa.vs of the monster emerged from the undergrowth, and in a Hash, there stood on the boulder looking lown at her 'kill' the great yellow Queen of the Forest in all her terrible glory. "It was a matter of seconds before my .303 riile cracked and a'Jeffery's softnosed split bullet found lodgment in the brain 6f this destroyer of Jium.ni life. 'The monster lurched forward 'aver the boulder on .which sno. had, stood facing mo' and fell tfpdtl the carcase of her last victim, how ayc.iged.''