THE MAN-EATING TIGER.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 8, 1 May 1876, Page 2

THE MAN-EATING TIGER.

■Dr. iayrer caused showing tliat during the one Tff 6,2l9"deaths from snake-bite .occurred iuff the Bengal Presidency alone," among ali population of , something more thanK 48,000,000 of souls. He now horrifies us ft: with accounts of the devastation caused byß man-eating tigers, which occasionally caustsS villages, and even "whole districts, to be I deserted. In one instance in the Central®; Provinces a single tigress caused the deser-B tion of thirteen villages, while 250 square® miles of country were thrown out of culti-B. vation before the creature was shot.® Another tigress in 1869 killed 127 people,® and stopped a public road for many weeks® befoi'e.it, too, succumbed to man. In 1868 the magistrate of-Godavery|® reported tliat part of the country overrun||| with tigers, no road safe, and that a tiger||j had. recently charged a large\ body of|p villagers within a few-hundred yards ofe| the civil-station. It is impossible to giv£fijj accurate statistics for the whole of so vasty] A* country as Hindostan ; but Jerdon cor-jL(| roborates these that in the district east' 185G and previous years,' on ail average' between two and three hundred villagers. ■ were killed annually. Tigers develope into man-eaters when they aro •<] old and sluggish,-and the teeth are some-|| what decayed. {preferring human flesh,|i| they find, when once tile awe natural -„t«ag wild animals tit thp presence, of shaken off, that" lie offers, an - easy \*nd|| tempting prey. In some districts theyS, abound ; wliile in others, as in Oude, andlj Rohilcund, one is only heard of about® every six years. The natives are extremely] superstitious respecting tigers, arid injj many parts dread the' wratli of the-- slainß tiger's spirit' almost mora than they feared| the creature when alive. The small; clavicles,. or shoulder bones, which araj deeply embedded in muscle, arc esteemedl valuable charms ; while every sportsman,! or, indeed, every one who is familiar with* tiger skins, knows how /difficult* it is to] save the tiger's claws. The whiskers, toofs are immediately plucked but by the sports| man's servants, on the tiger shotji before .their master can come up, as they; arc deemed a valuable love philter. Tlioso,. who arc most rigorously honest in alt( other respects caimot refrain from thuS| mutilating a skin. On the spot where as tiger has slain a human being, in the district round Mirzapore, the natives erect a curious conical mound of earth, which is ornamented with some coloured wash for coating, a few flowers, and or>e or mow singularly-shaped pieces of pottery. It is -j considered sacrilege to touch these, aitd i once a year the inhabitants of the neigli- * bouring villages visit the memorials, and j worship there.—" Cliamber's Journal;'''