The hunters say that a dozen or fifteen dogs, trained to the sport, will overpower a Lion before he can strike many blows: but these are the limbs which “at every blow destroy an enemy.”
We have next to treat of the Royal Tiger of Bengal, beautiful, powerful, fierce, and unrelenting.—Terrible, yet admirable!
Mr. Bewick says that the Tiger “is the most rapacious and destructive of all carnivorous animals. Fierce without provocation, and cruel without necessity, its thirst for blood is insatiable. Though glutted with slaughter, it continues its carnage; it fears neither the sight nor the opposition of man, whom it frequently makes its prey; and it is even said to prefer human flesh to that of any other animal:” a fact which is confirmed by Colonel Williamson, and Mr. Paul of Daudpore, the latter of whom has the reputation of having killed as many Tigers as any hundred other men in India.
The strength of this animal is so great, that when it has killed a Deer, it carries it off with much ease. Wood relates a story, on good authority, of a Buffalo being carried off by one; but it had previously refreshed itself by sucking the Buffalo’s blood. The latter had been hampered, and was weakened by its struggles in a quagmire; and the Tiger let fall its prey, and fled at the approach of some Indian peasants. We must suppose, too, this Tiger to have been one of the largest, and of extraordinary power, for Colonel Williamson reports that in the public combats that are sometimes exhibited in India, between Tigers and Buffaloes, the latter is commonly the victor.
But the eagerness of its voracity is believed to transcend that of any other creature whatever. If undisturbed at the commencement of its meal, it plunges its head into the body of its reeking victim, up to the very eyes, in order to glut itself with the bloody enjoyment. Oysters are not opened and swallowed with more zest and avidity.
[No. XIX.]
The commencement of such a Carnivorous Feast, where the Tiger has seized and slain—not a wild Buffalo, but a Bullock, from the tame herds of Hindostan. As the cattle descend toward the river to drink, their crafty enemy lies in ambush among the jungle, or creeps along cautiously and unseen; and, watching a favourable opportunity, makes his murderous spring.
Although Williamson corroborates Mr. Bewick’s account of the Tiger’s fondness of human flesh, he does not agree to that of its fearlessness. On the contrary, he thinks that on occasions where Tigers have seemed fearless, momentary anguish or resentment, has been their real stimulus; and adds, that “the Tiger is, of all beasts of prey, the most cowardly; its treacherous disposition induces it, almost without exception, to conceal itself until its prey may arrive within reach of its spring, be its victim either bulky or diminutive. Size seems to occasion no deviation in the Tiger’s system of attack, which is founded on the art of surprising. We find, accordingly, that such as happen to keep the opposite side of a road, by which they are somewhat beyond the first spring, often escape injury; the Tiger being unwilling to be seen before he is felt. Hence it is rarely that a Tiger pursues; but, if the situation permit, his cunning will not fail to effect his purpose, he will steal along the road-side among the bushes parallel with the traveller’s course, until one of the many chances which present themselves of finding him within reach, induces to the attack. Often, where the country is rather too open to allow his proceeding in this manner, the Tiger will take a sweep among underwood or through ravines, in order to meet the traveller again at a spot whence he may make his spring.
“Tigers are extremely partial to such sites as command a road, selecting one rather less frequented, in preference to one that is much in use. In the former, they are certain of finding as much as will answer their daily wants. If, however, the haunt be on a public road, it is usually at some spot abounding with grass or bushes, especially the prauss, and in the vicinity of some ample cover supplied with water, to which the prey can be dragged. There, in some low, opake spot, the sanguinary meal is consummated in gloomy silence.