The Tiger is exclusively an Asiatic animal, and his range extends, not
only over the more southern part of that continent, but to the larger
islands of the Archipelago, where he is particularly destructive. He is
as tall as the lion, but not quite so powerful; he is, however, more
agile, more graceful, and more insidious. He crouches, and mostly
springs in the same manner as the lion and other feline animals; he is
more ferocious, and will even fight with the lion. He seems to delight
in blood itself, for he will kill several victims, suck their blood,
and leave their carcasses to be devoured at another opportunity.
The colour of the tiger is a bright orange tawny, white underneath, and
broad black stripes on the back, sides and tail. His head is rounder
than that of the lion, and he takes the most enormous leaps; he is to be
tamed to a certain extent, but never trusted. He prowls both night and
day; and in some places, the devastation he has caused is terrific.
Nothing can exceed the tragic tales which are told of him, in the
countries where he exists in numbers; and in one part of India, it is
said that at least three hundred lives were taken every year, within a
district containing seven villages, independent of an enormous number of
sheep, goats, and cattle. Horses will not stand in his presence with any
steadiness; and the elephant is restless when in his vicinity. This
sagacious animal often manages to shake him off; and if he have taken
hold of his trunk, he tramples on him with his fore-feet and so destroys
him. If he cannot dislodge him from his body, he lies down upon him, and
attempts to kill him by rolling his ponderous weight upon him. Seldom,
however, is the tiger the aggressor, unless he be driven to it by
hunger, or maddened by pain and despair, and then he struggles till he
dies. He hides himself with such caution and skill, that travellers are
laid hold of without being aware of his vicinity. The bride has been
snatched from her camel, the sportsman from his elephant, and the child
from its mother.
Tigers are much more easily caught in traps than lions; and those most
used, are made so as to fall upon them when they seize the bait. In
Sumatra the natives poison the carcasses which are left for them, or
they fasten these baits to a stake, or tree, and place a vessel filled
with arsenic and water near by, of which the tiger invariably drinks,
after making a full meal.
A tiger is easily started by a sudden noise, as the well-known story of
Mrs. Day and her umbrella will prove; but I have another and more recent
instance of this, which occurred to my brother. He was one evening on
his return to his own house, from that of a brother officer with whom he
had been dining, and he was met by his servants, who intreated of him to
make haste home, for there was a tiger prowling round; and, in fact, a
jackal was close to him, who so often accompanies the tiger when seeking
his prey. My brother had been two or three years in India, and yet had
never seen one of these animals, so he told his men they might return,
but he should stay, for he much wished to see a tiger. They in vain
tried to dissuade him; but, fancying the beast was close by, they all
ran away, and left him to his fate. He sat down quietly by the bank of
his garden, and had not been there long when the tiger actually
appeared. He stopped, looked very grand, and seemed doubtful whether he
should make an attack on the motionless person before him, and there
never was a more beautiful animal than he appeared to be. He uttered a
sort of growl, and crouched down, as the cat often does when tormenting
a mouse; and my brother almost gave himself up for lost. He fancied that
he had been hidden, and that the tiger could not perceive him as he
passed; but he took off his grenadier cap, which was large, and covered
with bear's skin, and putting it before his face roared in it as loudly
as he could; the noise and the action so surprised the tiger, that he
turned round, and leaped into the neighbouring thicket. My brother
hastened away, and met his servants, who, now the danger was over, were
coming to protect their master with drums and torches.
The tiger has been known to snatch without springing, of which the
following anecdote, told me by a friend, is a confirmation. He was going
up one of the rivers in Assam, at the time when our troops took
possession of that country, in a covered boat, and his principal servant
retired on to the roof of the covering, to smoke at his ease. The river
was narrow, the banks were high, and they were going at a leisurely
pace, when my friend heard a slight scuffle over his head, then a
scream, followed by the cries of his party. On inquiring the cause, the
latter told him that a tiger had crept on to the top of the boat, put
out his paw, laid hold of the man as the boat passed, and dragged him
into the jungle.
The history of an unfortunate guide is an instance of the immediate
mischief which ensues from the first blow of one of these powerful
creatures. The poor man remonstrated with the officer, whose party he
was conducting, on the imprudence of marching before daylight; but the
officer, supposing it to be laziness, threatened to punish him if he did
not go on. The man took his shield and sword, and walked along the
narrow path, bordered on each side by high grass and bamboo. After going
five miles, the officer heard a tremendous roar, and a large tiger
passed him, so close, that he nearly brushed his horse, and sprang upon
the guide. The latter lifted up his shield, but he was down in an
instant, and under the tiger's paws, who seized him with his teeth,
growled, and looked at the officer. The tiger was attacked, and so
severely wounded that he dropped his victim; but it was all over with
the poor guide, the first blow had literally smashed his head in pieces.
In a plain near the Narbudda river, a party were hunting a tiger; but
the beast did not seem inclined to come to a battle with his
antagonists. He trotted across the plain, and as he passed an
unfortunate cow, he raised his paw, gave her a blow on the shoulder, and
she fell. He went on, and when the hunters examined the cow, she was
dead, he having left the print of every toe, and, in fact, every part of
his paw upon the shoulder blade, without making the smallest wound.
The following anecdotes have been obtained from various sources, and
some of the narrators were actors in the scenes described. A tiger had
sprung upon the shoulder of Lieutenant Colnett's elephant, who in this
situation fired at him, and he fell. Conceiving him to be disabled, the
Lieutenant descended from the elephant for the purpose of dispatching
him with his pistols; but in alighting, he came in contact with the
tiger, who had only crouched for a second spring, and who, catching hold
of him by the thigh, dragged him some distance along the ground. Having
succeeded in drawing one of a brace of pistols from his belt, Lieutenant
Colnett fired, and lodged a ball in the body of the tiger, when the
beast became enraged, shook him violently without letting go his hold,
and made off towards the thickest part of the jungle with his prey. In
the struggle to disengage himself from the clutches of the animal, the
Lieutenant caught hold of the tiger by both his ears, and succeeded,
after some time, in throwing the beast on his side, when he availed
himself of his momentary release to draw forth the remaining pistol, and
placing the muzzle at the breast of the tiger, shot him through the
heart. He then returned to his elephant, which he mounted without
assistance, feeling at the moment little pain from his wounds, although
he received no fewer than thirty-five, from the effects of which he long
afterwards continued to suffer.
A very large Royal tiger descended from some heights. After he had
settled himself, a party advanced, and he seemed anxious to charge, but
showed great reluctance to quit the spot where he had rested. Several
balls struck him in the flanks, and a musket ball having pierced his
side obliquely, passed through his liver, and he did not rise again. His
skin measured ten feet four inches and a half, and he was ten years of
age; for he had ten lobes to his liver, and it is by the appearance of
the tiger's liver that the natives ascertain the age.
I have quoted the above anecdote, not to prove the truth of the
circumstance as regards the tiger's liver, but as a tradition among the
inhabitants.
The people of Chittagong were alarmed by the appearance of a tigress,
who was first discovered among some cattle that were grazing at the
mouth of the river. On the first alarm, the natives of the vicinity
assembled with all speed and advanced against her. Irritated by this,
she sprang furiously on the person nearest to her, and wounded him
severely. The immediate attack of the crowd, however, was successful in
rescuing the man from her grasp. On this the tigress, finding herself
hemmed in on all sides, and seeing no way of avoiding the multitude,
except by the river, took to the water, and swam about five miles,
closely pursued by the natives in their boats, until she landed under a
tree in a dockyard. Here she laid herself down, apparently much
fatigued; but before the people in the yard could get their fire arms
ready, she had, in a great degree, recovered her strength. Several shots
were fired at her, and two of them penetrated her body, one of which
lamed her. Rendered desperate by this, she advanced against her new
opponents, and singling out a European gentleman in the yard, who was
provided with a cutlass, she sprang upon him before he could make use of
his weapon; knocked him down with her fore paw, seized his head in her
mouth, bit off a considerable part of the skin of his forehead, and
wounded him in several places. After this, she sprang upon a native,
fractured his skull, and otherwise lacerated him so dreadfully that he
died next day. She then entered a thicket close by, where she was
allowed to remain unmolested. On the morning of the following day, she
had got about a mile further from the water side, and near to a sepoy
village. Here she was surrounded by about a thousand natives, when,
although she was very lame, she sprang furiously on several of them, and
wounded one poor woman so dreadfully, as to occasion her death. A
fortunate shot, however, laid the animal prostrate.
There is an account of a tame tiger which was brought from China in the
Pitt East Indiaman, "who was so far domesticated as to admit of every
kind of familiarity from the people on board. He seemed to be quite
harmless and as playful as a kitten. He frequently slept with the
sailors in their hammocks, and would suffer two or three of them to
repose their heads on his back, as upon a pillow, while he lay stretched
upon the deck. In return for this, he would, however, now and then steal
their meat. Having one day carried off a piece of beef from the
carpenter, the man followed the animal, took it out of his mouth, and
beat him severely for the theft, which punishment he suffered with all
the patience of a dog. He would frequently run out upon the bowsprit,
climb about like a cat, and perform a number of tricks, with astonishing
agility. There was a dog on board, with whom he often played in the most
amusing manner; he was only a month or six weeks old when he was taken
on board, and arrived in England before he had completed a year."
The tiger is not as fond of his children as the lion is, and often
abandons the female while she is rearing her young. The tigress will
destroy her offspring as the cat does; but the following is an instance
of her affection, taken from Captain Williamson's "Oriental Field
Sports." This officer had two tiger cubs brought to him, which had been
discovered, with two more, by some villagers while their mother had been
in quest of prey. The captain put them into a stable where they were
very noisy during the night. A few days having elapsed, their mother at
length discovered where they were, came to relieve them, and replied to
their cries by tremendous howlings, which induced their keeper to set
the cubs at liberty, lest the dam should break in. She had carried them
off to an adjoining jungle before morning.
Bishop Heber happily compares the slight movement of the long grass of
the jungle, which betrays the presence of the tiger, to the bubbles
which rise to the surface of water, and show the lurking place of the
otter.
The immense strength of the tiger is frequently shown by the manner in
which he throws his prey over his shoulder, and conveys it to his lair
to be devoured. One is said to have carried a buffalo in this manner,
which weighed a thousand pounds. Captain Brown gives the following
account of the innate love of flesh displayed by the tiger:--"A party of
gentlemen from Bombay, one day visiting the stupendous temple of
Elephants, discovered a tiger's whelp in one of the obscure recesses.
Desirous of kidnapping the cub, without encountering the fury of its
dam, they took it up hastily and cautiously retreated. Being left
entirely at liberty, and extremely well fed, the tiger grew rapidly,
appeared tame, and in every respect domesticated. At length, when it had
attained a great size, and, notwithstanding its apparent gentleness,
began to inspire terror by its tremendous powers of doing mischief. A
piece of raw meat, dripping with blood, fell in its way. Hitherto it had
been studiously kept from animal food; but the instant it had dipped its
tongue in blood, something like madness seemed to have seized upon the
animal. A destructive principle, hitherto dormant, was awakened; it
darted fiercely and with glaring eyes upon its prey, tore it to pieces
with fury, and roaring in the most fearful manner, rushed at once into
the jungle."
I am not sorry to end this account of the tiger with an old story, which
places the fierce beast of prey in rather a more amiable light than most
of the previous histories. "A tigress of great beauty, from Bengal,
being extremely docile on her passage home from Calcutta, was allowed to
run about the vessel, and became exceedingly familiar with the sailors.
On her arrival in the Thames, however, her temper became very irascible,
and even dangerous. She was placed in the Tower, where she for some time
continued to exhibit a sulky and savage disposition. One day, the person
who had charge of her on board the ship, visited the Tower, and begged
permission of the keeper to be allowed to enter her den, to which he at
last agreed, though with much reluctance. No sooner did the tigress
recognise her old friend, than she fawned upon him, licked, and caressed
him, exhibiting the most extravagant signs of pleasure; and when he
left her, she whined and cried the whole day afterwards."