I lowered the rifle, to rest my arm for a moment. So long a time elapsed, that I was afraid the tiger had turned straight up the hill in a direct line with the bush, and thus lost to sight; I had almost come to this sad conclusion, when a magnificent head projected from the dark green bush into the bright light of the open space. For quite 15 seconds the animal thus stood with only the head exposed to view, turned half-way round to listen. I felt quite sure that I could have put a bullet through its brain; but I waited. Presently it emerged, a splendid form, and walked slowly across the open space. At the same moment as I touched the trigger, the tiger reared to its full height upon its hind legs, and with a roar that could have been heard at a couple of miles' distance it seized a small tree within its jaws, and then fell backwards; it gave one roll down the slope, and lay motionless. The devil was cast out. I never saw such enthusiastic rejoicing as was occasioned by the death of this notorious tiger. The news ran like fire through the neighbouring villages before we had completed the packing of the animal upon Demoiselle. I had no means of weighing this tiger, but it was the heaviest I have ever seen, and although we had four poles beneath its body and a great number of willing men at the extremities, we had great difficulty in loading Demoiselle. By the time we had completed the operation we had a large crowd in attendance, all of whom followed the elephant upon the march towards our camp bearing the body of the tiger, which had been the scourge of their herds during so many years. At least 300 women and children assembled to satisfy themselves that their enemy was really dead. The women kissed his feet and wiped their eyes with the tip of his tail; for what purpose could not be explained. As this animal had lived in luxury, it was immensely fat, and we filled numerous chatties with this much-loved grease, to be used as ointment for rheumatic complaints. Unfortunately at that time I had no weighing machine, therefore it was impossible to judge the weight with accuracy, but we computed that the fat alone amounted to 70 lbs. avoirdupois. The tiger was certainly upwards of 500 lbs. I found the '577 bullet of pure lead had entered exactly at the shoulder joint, which it had smashed to atoms, carrying splinters of bone through the lungs; passing through the ribs upon the opposite side, it had smashed the left shoulder, and was fixed beneath the skin, expanded like a mushroom. There was no danger to any person employed in this hunt, but I have described it as an apt example of a cunning tiger, which escaped so many attempts upon its life that it was regarded as "uncanny." My servant Thomas was quite delighted, as he had offered to bet that, "devil or no devil, his master's rifle would kill him, if he got a shot."