these great carnivora, can
hardly realise the terror which is inspired by them in the countries
they infest.

In many places human life is not safe; and men go out upon a journey,
with the same dread of meeting a tiger, that we would have for an
encounter with a mad dog. This dread is by no means founded upon mere
fancies or fabricated stories. Every village has its true tales of
tiger attacks and encounters, and every settlement has its list of
killed or maimed. You can scarce credit such a relation; but it is a
well-known fact that whole districts of fertile _country_ have from time
to time been abandoned by their inhabitants out of pure fear of the
tigers and panthers which infested them! Indeed, similar cases of
depopulation have occurred in South America, caused by a far less
formidable wild beast--the jaguar.

In some parts of India the natives scarce attempt resistance to the
attack of the tiger. Indeed, the superstition of his victims aids the
fierce monster in their destruction. They regard him as being gifted
with supernatural power, and sent by their gods to destroy; and under
this conviction yield themselves up, without making the slightest
resistance.

In other parts, where races exist possessed of more energy of character,
the tiger is hunted eagerly, and various modes of killing or capturing
him are practised in different districts.

Sometimes a bow is set with poisoned arrows, and a cord attached to the
string. A bait is then placed on the ground, and arranged in such a way
that the tiger, on approaching it, presses against the cord, sets the
bow-string free, and is pierced by the arrow--the poison of which
eventually causes his death.

A spring-gun is set off by a similar contrivance, and the tiger shoots
himself.

The log-trap or "dead-fall"--often employed by American backwoodsmen for
capturing the black bear--is also in use in India for trapping the
tiger. This consists of a heavy log or beam so adjusted upon the top of
another one by a prop or "trigger," as to fall and crush whatever animal
may touch the trigger. A bait is also used for this species of trap.

Hunting the tiger upon elephants is a royal sport in India, and is often
followed by the Indian rajahs, and sometimes by British sportsmen--
officers of the East India Company. This sport is, of course, very
exciting; but there is nothing of a _ruse_ practised in it. The hunters
go armed with rifles and spears; and attended