The Temple Tiger and More Man-eaters of Kumaon

by Jim Corbett

And, the greatest satisfaction of all, at having made a small portion of the earth safe for a brave little girl to walk on.

Instinct helps, but it is the infinite patience of the mother and the unquestioning obedience of her offspring that enable the young of all animals in the wild to grow to maturity.

Danger not only adds zest to all forms of sport, it also tends to sharpen the faculties and to bring into focus all that is to be seen and heard in a forest.

Fear may not be a heritage to some fortunate few, but I am not of their number. After a lifelong acquaintance with wildlife I am no less afraid of a tiger’s teeth and claws today than I was the day that a tiger shooed Magog and me out of the jungle in which he wanted to sleep.

Experience engenders confidence, and without these two very important assets the hunting of a man-eating tiger on foot, and alone, would be a very unpleasant way of committing suicide.

When a road is interesting its length does not register on one’s consciousness.

Tigers, except when wounded or when man-eaters, are on the whole very good-tempered. Were this not so it would not be possible for thousands of people to work as they do in tiger-infested jungles, nor would it have been possible for people like me to have wandered for years through the jungles on foot without coming to any harm.

‘No greater happiness can man know, than the sudden cessation of great pain,

When an Indian gives his loyalty, he gives it unstintingly and without counting the cost.