THE HUNTER HUNTED.
"It is about the same with the chase of the wild elephant," the Doctor remarked. As he said it, the servant announced the readiness of something to eat in the cabin, and the conversation was suspended until the party was seated at table.
"In some parts of the East," Doctor Bronson continued, "it is the custom for princes and kings to give grand entertainments in the shape of elephant fights. Sometimes two elephants are matched together; but quite as often they are pitted against some other beast. Formerly these fights were carried on till one of the combatants was dead or severely hurt; but at present an effort is made to keep them from injuring each other, and the fight is little more than a series of rather violent pushes from one side of the ring to the other.
"Mr. Crawfurd, who was sent at the head of an embassy from the Governor-general of India to Siam and Cochin China in 1821, was present at a tiger and elephant fight in Saigon. His account is interesting in two ways; it shows the manner of conducting one of these fights, and gives us a glimpse at the manners of the Far East sixty years ago. After detailing his reception by the governor, he says:
"We were invited to be present at an elephant and tiger fight, and for this purpose we mounted our elephants and repaired to the glacis of the fort, where the combat was to take place. A great concourse of people had assembled to witness the exhibition. The tiger was secured to a stake by a rope tied round his loins, and about thirty yards long. The mouth of the unfortunate animal was sewn up, and his nails drawn out; he was of large size, and extremely active. No less than forty-six elephants, all males and of great size, were seen drawn out in line. One at a time was brought to attack the tiger.
"The first elephant advanced, to all appearance, with a great show of courage, and we thought, from his determined look, that he would certainly have despatched his antagonist in an instant. At the first effort he raised the tiger on his tusks to a considerable height, and threw him to the distance of at least twenty feet. Notwithstanding this, the tiger rallied and sprung upon the elephant's trunk and head, up to the very keeper, who was upon his neck. The elephant took alarm, wheeled about, and ran off, pursued by the tiger as far as the rope would allow him. The fugitive, although not hurt, roared most piteously, and no effort could bring him back to the charge. A little after this, we saw a man brought up to the governor, bound with cords, and dragged into his presence by two officers.
"'This was the conductor of the recreant elephant. A hundred strokes of the bamboo were ordered to be inflicted upon him on the spot. For this purpose he was thrown on his face on the ground, and secured by one man sitting astride upon his neck and shoulders, and by another sitting upon his feet, a succession of executioners inflicting the punishment. When it was over, two men carried off the sufferer by the head and heels, apparently quite insensible.
"'While this outrage was perpetrating, the governor coolly viewed the combat of the tiger and elephant, as if nothing else particular had been going forward. Ten or twelve elephants were brought up in succession to attack the tiger, which was killed at last, merely by the astonishing falls he received when tossed off the tusks of the elephants. The prodigious strength of these animals was far beyond anything I could have supposed. Some of them tossed the tiger to a distance of at least thirty feet, after he was nearly lifeless, and could offer no resistance. We could not reflect without horror that these very individual animals were the same that have for years executed the sentence of the law upon the many malefactors condemned to death. Upon these occasions, a single toss, such as I have described, is always, I am told, sufficient to destroy life.'"
TAKING A NAP.