MAN-EATER!

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 150, 21 December 1929, Page 22

MAN-EATER!

TIGER'S EVIL REPUTATION

' The" .tiger which "has 'reached the London Zoo. from Sumatra with the eTil : reputation of having killed and eaten'several men differs from most man-eaters (writes Oscar Lloyd in the << Daily Mail." : '■■'■■-

He is full-grown, healthy, and in .ihe prime of life. As a rule a tiger which preys upon the weakling, man, is old, erippled>--er diseased;-" -""■■"."

■The Malayan "tiger,' \vEether in the ..Mglay Peninsula,;or.. tho^East Indian Islands of Java, or. Sumatra, is far commoner than is'usually recognised. Occasionally tigers. visit Singapore, swimming the straits from Johore. In Pne. w,eek. five tigers were killed unon •one rubber estatein Upper Porak, and fifteen in the same . district '• in three weeks. They are- shy and cunning, and inhabit the ; trackless,:foothills whore fewmen ..go.', '''■•-■:,■:'■:■; : v . ...

Thi s .mah-eater'ha.s'kilied, it is said, natives. "It might be worse. A famous mainland'man-eater,'the "Taiping Tiger," wliich ranged from Taiping to Kuala Kangsar, was . credited with fourteen Victims in a year. In^nc case he dragged a Malay tyoinan through the side of a hut within a stone's throw of the European rest,,;li.buse. Another victim ■ .was tho fourteenth of a row of sleeping coolies. Many."tempting bails were laid^'cforthe Taiping tiger:. Hunters waited all night' beside., tethered beasts, but no tiger" ,i?ame. 'Once a police inspector hid inia .tree watching an ox .to the edge of the jungle, hoping for the: tiger's advent. s Dawn came; the Englishman put up his Tifle; a native came out with a bundle,of hay to feed the ox. Then tho tiger--sprang, and carried off the man. f His end came after a year of deathA?aJingiJ>u!; whether avtiger found deld" beside'a poisoned"lull or ono'shot by a f amous^.Aus r tralian hunter was the maneater is uncertain. More fitting was tho end of the second tiger, shot within a hundred, yards of a main: road at ■Matang.-'I "measured him "next morning—eight feet six from tail to noso! This tiger had a growth at the base of the nostril which affected his breath-' ing, perhaps his brain, so there is a great likelihood that he was the "Taiping Tiger." ■■;.••

Tie Malays regard^ the tiger with' air. Almost superstitious reverence. It you. speak lightly .of a-tiger they check theVscdffet/at once. '"The tiger will know and.seek revenge," they: say. '■■''■•