A FIERCE FAMILY ON AN ISLAND.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2574, 7 August 1909, Page 2 (Supplement)

A FIERCE FAMILY ON AN ISLAND.

(“The Outing Magazine.”) We came to the village of Myoboung vii Pahree "Island. When we asked for men to search for my boat that had sunk in the cyclone, the Burmese talked of the prodigious ploughing and rice-planting that was at hand. Even then they were resting up their muscles for the toil; and presently, when the padouk tree had flowered three times, when ;+s great purple ■ clusters festooned it like Chinese lanterns, they would go down into the terraced rice plots in the flats with their winter buffalo and plough with diligence—also with the little wooden crotch of a tree which was a rudimentary plough. Dan laughed ironically; for these men of toil were sleeping and eating, and vicing with thy lilies of the field in idleness. /

“What is it—why do they not/jump up at the chance to earn monew?” I asked Emir Alii. . / “It is because of bagh, saliilf; they arc afraid. They sit here, an dr the sun opens their hand in the nWning that they may work; but «4hoy smoke cheroots, even opium, ayd in the night the cold closes their Ijfaiubs and they sleep.” I

“ U ' lc the I said;' ' ’ ~ , r r i orC W as the lord or nl recoit 111 o- ( ,f the jungle, the jungle, anu vay . * •- -- \ ■ * • tiger and tigress, fri say nothing of the suckling cub; the same fierce family that had stalked me as t slept by the fire after the boat wreck. The tigm’S had killed at -Mvolioung, at the village of Shwetlui, at Tharetprin— in fact, the whole island of Pahree was in toll to them. Even there at Myoboung they had mauled Pho Tiia in broad daylight as he herded his hairless buffalo in the grove of wild mango trees close to the

village

And now these accursed destroyers would be with them all ■ through the tains perhaps. The tigers had come from the mainland, swimming to the island, and now that the water was rough they would not go away again. All night the villagers sat up and burned fires, and fired off their guns to keep bagh away.

“Guns! Who had gqns?” I asked

At my question, the myoolc (headman) coughed, blinked his eyes, and rolled the huge wad of betel-nut in his mouth nervously . Guns wore prohibited to the natives, except by license. Yes, to be sure, one gun, which he, as headsman, might possess. That the ‘other guns he had inadvertently spoken of were necessary to these simple village folk when they too‘k up their occasional role of dacoit, I knew full well; hut that was not my line of work, so we continued on the subject of the tiger.

Yes, if wo would bag the tiger and ]iis hungry wife and child, the villagers would go with, us and grapple for the boat. They would even accept twice, their ordinary wage, which was little to extort from a sahib.

And knowledge of the tiger s whereabouts was most explicit. According to one villager, bagb was at Tharetprin; another knew where he was in hiding at Shwtha; he had also made a kill the night before at a villge six miles from either of these places. It was confusing—absolutely oriental. 'When in doubt give it up and pray, is the method of the Buddhist; and instead of keeping track of Iluzoor Stripes, they had been hanging festoons of wax-petal led jasmine on the little pagoda near the village, and sticking patches of gold-leaf beside the placid stone Buddali that sat, all indifferent, a square-fingered hand idly in lvis lap. But amongst all the villagers there was one sane man—r-Lah Boh, the huntsman. Of course, he had no gun; we, as sahibs, were to believe that, because he said so. But still, as we had guns most excellent, and being Sahibs, had not livers that would turn to water when the fierce tiger curled the bristles of his mouth at us, lie would most absolutely living us in the way of making a kill of the. dreaded boast. He alone ‘knew where the tiger would sup that night; the. others who chatter ed like moonfaced monkeys were eaters of opium and men who had dreams.

At Shwotha we would surely bud bagli, for lie had brought the matter of his kill to a routine. He circle', the island, passing from village to village, even as a carp feeds in a pond. Yes, he was due that night at Shwetha. Lab Boh spoke in a manner of one announcing the arrival there of a t,steamer. .

Shwetha was two hours by footpath, and we thought we could make it before dark, but when wo got there it was too late to_ carry out our plan of a tied-up bill lock, and a maelian in a tree, too late to build the maehan, Lab Boh said.

But Dan bad a plan of exceeding craziness.* Nothing but a brilliant success would have removed the stigma of idiocracy from his proposition. We ■could do without the machait, Dan declared ; many times we had shot wild pigs together in just this maclian-le.ss way of concealing ourselves on the ground tinder cover of leal branches bur Express rifles .would surely stop Stripes if he essayed our hiding-place. I objected—it yvas too risky.

When we appealed to - ■ah Boh,- the Buddhist was different, Who was he. a slave of the sahibs, to interfere • if they took the risk. The white men were gods who accomplished all things,' only—and he spoke in a whisper—-this tiger travelled in company with an evil spirit that told him everything; else how had he left a kill half oaten when the villagers had sat in a tice over it with guns, awaiting for his return the second night.

Dan had his way, and a bamboo cartcover was placed on the ground where the rice fields met the. jungle, and over this was thatched a leaf cover in the way of deceit. Lali Boh advised a goat for the tieup; the goat would call out of fear, and bagh .would surely come to the summons.

Tim nanny was tied up to a small tree twenty yards up wind from th-o open end of our ground machan. In the village all the cattle, even the pariah dogs, had been carefully gathered into a stockade, so that the tiger shou d not have a chance to pick and choose. - ■ '*

“Bagh will come first to the village,” skid Lah Boh; “then, when lie finds no .kill he will circle through the jungles in his hunger, and hearing the goat, /will come for his small carcase.

Then Lah Boh and Emir Alii went back to the village, leaving the two sahibs, Dan and myself, who were tiie originators of this mad scheme, to crawl into the shelter that was like a dog’s kennel, where we lay, side by side, our double-barrelled Express rifles trained on the goat. “I hope the tiger turns up,” Dan said, as he lighted *a cheroot. “I hope ho doesn’t,” I replied; “and he won’t while you smoke.”

“You’ve been reading hunts written in f leet-street by penny-A-liners,” Dan retorted. “The mail scent—in this ease the sahib scent —will carry further tll&n the tobacco; besides, (!q yoil think that this striped highway robber, who lias bottled up all the natives in. their huts night after night, cares a sAap for the smell of a cheroot? Perhaps the tobacco taint will kill the tobacco odor, which those jungle dwellers dread, though God knows how they have come to that knowledge.” “We’ll be caught like rats in a trap if bagh turns rusty,” I replied. “More big game literature; ; the charging of a tiger is a jrara ai is.*, Doesn’t Higgins of, Chittagong go out and shoot them in broad daylight on foot? Weren’t we with him when he bagged the black leopard that was the worst kind of a cat.

All this was very logical; but logic has little to do with the state of one’s nerves, cooped up in a hen crate on the edge of a jungle with the possible enmity of two offended tigers hanging over one. |

Then the heavy Burmese night came down upon us with sensuous fullness. The struggle of the approaching monsoons .seemed to have beaten the life out of the air—it lmng like a dead thing, almost without current. Our cover was pitched under a padouk, whose blossoms die the day they are born, and now, like falling dew, the petals dropped about us with their smothering incense; and from the untilled rice fields beyond a ghost-like mist wa:: rising.

From the village came the warning cry of the disconsolate pariahs; and over in the jungle, a jackal pack was lamenting the everlasting hunger pain that was their lot.

Everything animate was articulate, even to the shrill tree crickets, except our goat. He that should have been luring the tiger to us, was browsing in sweet content.

As I trained the night sights of my j-jfle which were knots of white cotton —on the complacent beast, I felt tempted to puli the trigger.

For two hours we lay, our straining ears gleaning nothing but the discordant sounds of the jungle. Then suddenly things commenced to move in the village; it was a great noise—it was louder than a Wagner concert. “The tiger,” whispered Dan. * , Even the goat, startled, bleated. “I’m going to tie that beast up on its hind legs he’s too happy,” Dan muttered, as our bait relapsed into sil-. encc. My comrade slipped out, and when he came back the nanny reproached him persistently. The uproar in the village died away, the jackals were hushed: and there was only the pathetic bleat of the boat. .“The tigers are working this way," Dan whispered, “for the jungle is hushed in fear.”

Half an hour we waited, not speaking, our limbs stinging because of their rigid quiet. Presently Dan’s elbow telegraphed a warning to my side. I also heard a stealthy step. It was just the leaves or the grass whispering that something of dread passed. “Sp-f-f-ff—sp-f-f-ff- —sp-f-f-f,” long intervals between each slipping sound, ns though the animal balanced its' weight before the next foot was placed. Even the goat had heard, and fear strangled its voice to a faint whisper. I knew not from which side the prowling one came; there was just the stealthy creep so impossible of location. My eyes made out‘nothing in the moonlight but .the goat, grotesquely waltzing on its hind legs like a. faun.

The creep., creep, creep -of the cautious steps continued; it ■ seemed an age .since I had heard the slip of the tiger’s huge pads. But it was coming nearer; more distinctly spoke the. rustling grass. And now' I could locate the prowler; behind our hiding place, and towards our feet the deliberate visitor approached. Much Letter be out in the daylight with Higgins than there with a tiger taking us in the rear, T. thought. , It seemed as though the 'animal crept by inches. It was impossible to turn in our narrow cover ; • and • yet nerves were almost mastering reason, threatening to yank me right-about-face to the tiger,. . ,

I .could hear his breath - now,.and then, he was certainly clawing at our leaf cover.

Dan had not moved a muscle; his composure was all that restrained me from an insane turn. y

• I tried to reason out the extraordinary movement of the tiger. If he had caught our scent——lie couldn’t see us why had ho not cleared out; that would be more natural. Probably lie was stalking the goat from behind what he took to bo a ’bush, for its always the same with a tiger—lie would carefully stalk even chicken. I hardly knew what happened; perhaps my nerves, grown irresponsible, twitched a foot, but at the side of our cover there was rip-p of the branches, a hoarse, gasping baric, and we both laughed' out of sheer relief of the strain.

Our stealthy tiger was a poor, foolish little Barking Dber, coming, out of tribal curiosity to seo why the goat bleated. For me the ribbed-iaced horned one had held the terror of a nine-foot- man-eater.

We waited all night, but in vain, for the oemming of Stripes. And in the morning the villagers declared that bagh had been at tlieir cattle corral. Their profuse oriental story bore testimony to the fact that seven large tigers of the size of elephants had come and sought to devour all their cattle ; and one, the leader, was guided by a fiercelooking spirit.

But Lah Boh, the sane one, said that perhaps no tiger had come at all; it might have been jackals, QV ft hyena, that set the pariahs barking.

However, we started to build a machan in a spreading tree; but at noon word came that bagh had killed at Tharetprin;

MVo must go to Tharetprin at once,” Dan said. J

But Lah Boh consulted the mental time-table he had compiled of vlio cattle-killer’,-, movements, and said: “Bagli will pass my village, Myoboung, in two days, or. in three days. We will go there and meet him.'’ It seemed reasonable. It was certainly hotter, to lie all prepared with a kill waiting for the hungry tiger, than to bo following him up.

At Myoboung we built a machan m a tarmarind, and again Lah 801 l was possessed with unlooked-for wisdom. “Tie up under the machan, sahibs,” he said, “ and rest in happiness here in the village. The spirit that is with bagh will think that the villagers have made a peace offering to the jungle king, and he will take the kill. Then when we know lie is here, we will tie up another goru (bullock) and this time we will slay bagh from the machan.” We- were given an empty zyat (priest’s resting house) to sleep in. Our machan was a short distance in the jungle. The first night nothing happened; the second, we were awakened from sleep by the sound of a fierce chase circling about our bungalow. A lantern hung on the verandah, .and on the outer edge of its radiance we dimly made out two huge animals tearing through the jungle growth. Twice they circled the zyat, and 'I could hear the pounding hoofs of the bullock and the sucking breath of some animal in chase.

We hastily grasped our rifles and rushed out ; but the disturbers of our rest swept on down through the paddy fields at a terrific pace, and into the jungle beyond. In the morning our tied-up bullock was gone and the rope broken, and his hoof tracks, followed by the pugs of a huge tiger, led to our zyat, and then away from it.

Lab Boh read the riddle that was easy of solution. Because of fear goru broke the rope that was not a new one, then he passed swiftly to the sahib’s light, thinking the bagli would be afraid of the men people. With Lah Boh and some villagers we followed the pugs, and came to the spor where the tiger had made his kill. From there the bullock had been dragged a hundred yards into a little mullah (ravine) lined by myriad growing bamboos.

The bullock’s neck was broken, and the hindquarters gone.

“They will come back to-night for the rib roast,” Dan said; “we will sit in a tree over the drag, and polish off Huzoor Stripes.”

“This bagli is not like other baghs,” Lah Boh declared; “because of the spirit which "guides him, he will not come again to the drag, for ho will know tlupt the sahibs have been there because of the man scent. Also, il there is a chance of new kill of goru, he will not eat this part outlie body; always .bagli eats the hind legs, and but sometimes the fore legs. We will, cut with our dabs (knives) the bamboos here, and s the killer will think perhaps it is a trap We will tie up a new goru at the maehan, and the sahibs will pass into- the tree and wait there for bagli, who will surely come.”

At once Dan concurred in this arrangement. Lah Boh was possessed of much hunt knowledge ; also he was skilled in diplomacy ; Dan and I would pay for the new bullpck, ak we had for the other, and presently, when we had gone to our zyat, 'the simple villagers would come and retrieve for their own flesh- pots the beef thak'Stripes had left for his next meal. At four o’clock Lah Boh brought two cart bullocks for us to ride to the maehan, saying 'that we would thus leave no scent on the earth loi bagli to bother .over. .

“.For ns ' black men the tiger cares nothing,” the Burinan said -plaintively ; “hut if lie smells the sahib,’s footsteps lie will he afraid. And if the sahibs go now they can become quiet before the •d il 1-k , Fa lid' a Iso tli e see iit will 1 1 are d ied a little.” ' ... .. .

We rode, the, led bullocks to the tamarind, and from their backs clambered to our maehan. ~ -

It, bad been made with skill, large enough for us to lie at full length, and well screened with leafy branches.

“Early to bed makes a in an healthy,” muttered Dan, “but in this ease it means unlimited jungle fever.” On the tied-up bullock’s, neck hung a wooden bell, and as he chewed the cud of content, quite oblivious of the heroic part he was playing, its wooden tongues clacked musically at every, twist of its head. '

We had come prepared for hours of dreary night waiting—cheroots, a flask, and a bite to eat. Dan growled at tho unnecessarily early start we had made, while I, content in the safety our clovation afforded, stretched myself at full length, and philosophically advised him to take a nap. A family of monkeys, tho quaint, black-faced, white-whiskered lianuman, shot into the tamarind from a neighboring tree, and evidently meant to camp there for the night. “These jungle-fool , people will upset everything,” my comrade growled. “As soon as stripes shows himself, they’ll jabber and kick up a row, and put him on edge.” Our machan caught the eye of tho monkeys, and they proceeded to investigate. Suddenly a wrinkled frowsy head was thrust in at tho opening fair in Dan’s face. Then they both swore at being startled—Pan and tho monKey. The row started up a cloud of parakeets that were settling down for the jdghlj and we were 'promised a heritage of unrest,

“What are they iip to how,” Dan exclaimed, for tho monkeys had suddenly shifted their abuse of us to something in tho jungle, and their excitement had increased tenfold.

“Look at tho bullock,” I whispered

“Gad! I believe that cheeky swine of a tiger is coming in broad daylight,” Dan whispered back. It must lie the king of the jungle; the anger of the monkey people- said it, and the terror in the eyes of tho bullock pictured it. He was straining bac'k at the strong rope that held him, and from his frothed lips issued a low moaning bellow of tear. His fawn colored skin, soft as silk, was as tremulous as shaken water.

Neither of us spoke again. It is the unexpected that always happens. But such luck! A shot in the daylight! And lie was indeed a hold one, this

eater of bullocks and mauler of natives. The bullock was a watch that timed accurately each yard in the tiger s advance. His abject terror filled me with pity. It was a strange inexplicable thing, this intuition of the animal world that taught them wherein lay the great danger. Now I knew that Stripes was close, for the monkeys, running ninthly to tho top of their tree, shot away with downward swoop to the branches of another, scolding and calling to each other as they fled. The bullock liad almost ceased to berlow, and stood, fore logs wide apart and head lowered to the ground, transfixed in terror.

Suddenly, through the bushes, ten yards from our median, was thrust the sneering yellow muzzle of a tiger, and his red-brown eyes glared with horrible cupidity at the animal that was now fascinated to silence. Atop this face of evil, the rounded ears,, black rosetted, were twitched back angrily. It was almost a shot; but the sloped forehead angled sideways to me, and the thick skull would deflect my bullet like a steel shield. Also bis quick eye would catch the slightest move on our part. For two minutes or more bagb inspected the goru; then the head slipped back between the leaves, and we heard the spufl-spuft of his pads as he circled in the bushes.

Presently there was a gleam of yellow to the left, on the edge of the abandoned paddy field that reached almost to our tamarind. Gradually the yellow shadow crept into the open, keeping close to the fringe of bush. Then another form followed the first a half-grown cub. It was the. tigress that had come for the bullock.

Even in its dreadful menace—in its suggestion of brutal ferocity, the stealthy approach of the tigress was beautiful to sec. A creep of a yard or two, then she crouched, head low to earth, and tail lashing from side to side with vicious jerks.

, The cub was evidently being schooled. Close behind Ills mother the youngster skulked, his young, foolish eyes shifting from point to- point as though he did not quite know what it all meant. . As wo lay side by side, both our rifles were trained, on the tigress. She was head-on to us, and either the brain shot, or the point of tlio shoulder, or'the vertebrae of the neck were then' to choose from. [ know that Dan would nudge me when we were to fire, and I waited, finger on trigger, and my eye lying along the sights.

The tigress crouched, and turned her fiico towards our maehan, though her eyes still rested straight ahead. 1. felt the soft push of Dan’s knee on my- leg, and pressed my trembling finger to the level of death. There was a roar of' both rifles, a. little cloud of smoke. '

“Bagged her!” Dan ejaculated ;* for the great beast, tawny-and-black- strip! ed was on herj side, clawing viciously at the sod.‘ ' .

Again oilr rifles spoke, and the bullets sped home. Slowly the huge' head fell flat to earth, the red eyes lost their ferocity—or was it only.a glint of pity for the dying that fancied this- —the breath sucked and sputtered through the blood that oozed from mouth and nostrils, and, waiting with .impatience , for a little-in. our maehan ,we saw the death come and put the seal of silence on the battered I form of beautiful strength. We got the tiger tliree/\nights later, and the islanders slept sound again.