Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 41.djvu/271

Rh is perhaps not so far removed from that of the non-carnivorous creatures as might be supposed. Man is certainly not the natural food of any animal—except of sharks and alligators, if he is so rash as to go out of his native element into theirs—and if the item "man" were subtracted from the bill of fare of all the carnivora, they would never want a meal. The notion of the natural attitude of a lion to a young lady—

 When as that tender virgin he did spye, Upon her he did run full greedily, To have at once devoured her tender corse,"

is still popular, but hardly correct. More probably the lion would get out of the way politely—if we may judge by the pacific behavior of those in our last-explored lion-haunt, Mashonaland. M. Georges Leroy's contention for the natural affinity, or semi-sympathy, which should exist between man and the intelligent hunting animals is no doubt partly reasonable. Leigh Hunt was unpleasantly struck by the incongruity of the notion of being eaten by a wild beast "the hideous impracticable fellow-creature, looking one in the face, struggling with us, mingling his breath with ours, tearing away scalp or shoulder-blade." But the "fellow-creature" is not nearly so impracticable as he is supposed to be. More human beings are probably killed by tigers than by any other wild beast, except by starving wolves. Yet this is what Sir Samuel Baker has to say on the subject: "There is a great difference in the habits of tigers. Some exist upon the game in the jungles. Others prey especially upon the flocks belonging to the villagers. A few are designated 'man-eaters,’ These are sometimes naturally ferocious, and having attacked a human being, may have devoured the body, and thus acquired a taste for human flesh; or they may have been wounded on more than one occasion, and have learned to regard man as a natural enemy. But more frequently the ’man-eater’ is a very old tiger, or more probably tigress, that, having hunted in the neighborhood of villages and carried off some unfortunate woman, has discovered that it is far easier to kill a native than to hunt jungle game." As a rule, the tiger is only anxious to avoid men; and it is noticed that in high grass tigers are more dangerous than in forests, because in the former they can not be seen, neither can they see, until the stranger is close upon them. An ancient instance of the opposite behavior is that recorded of the new colonists of Samaria, whom the lions attacked, and "slew some of them." A curious inversion of this experience occurred when the islands in the Brahmaputra, which were swarming with tigers, were first cultivated. The natives, mainly by the aid of traps set with a bow and arrow, killed off the tigers so fast that the skins were sold by auction at