The tiger is a very cruel creature that will kill even when he is not hungry, and if one begins to eat men as well as cattle the villagers live in terror of him. He watches warily by the roadways for any stray passer-by, and he will follow a bullock cart for miles in the hope that some one of those who walk by it will fall behind, and give him the chance of attacking him alone. And so men learn to fear the “pug” marks of the tiger with a terrible fear, and to shudder at the thought of his silent footsteps. When the villagers find that there is a tiger making his lair near their village, and coming to it day after day to steal their cattle or to carry off their children, they first find out where he drinks. That is easily done, for the soft clay near the bank of the river keeps the marks of his paws. Then when they are sure of that, they get three strong nets and hang them from upright bamboos across the path by which he must come to drink. The tiger comes quietly along, and ere he knows he is entangled in one of the nets and has pulled down the first pair of bamboo poles. The more he struggles the more the meshes trouble him, and if he does manage to break through, all trammelled as he is with the broken net, it is only to dash into the next one. There he lies wild and helpless, and struggles till he is worn out. In the evening, the villagers come with their spears and attack the prisoner, but they do not like him to be too quiet. They like him to growl at them, and to try to leap at them. It seems too easy a victory if he is dull and stupid ere they reach him.