St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1888-03-24
HUNTING BENGAL TIGERS.
A Gentleman from the Orient Describes
Dangerous Sport.

A Gentleman from the Orient Describes
Dangerous Sport.
The most intensely fascinating and
by far the most dangerous way OF
hunting the Bengal tigers, is the way
most of the natives do it. They collect
in throngs of hundreds and GO to the
woods, with half bred bull and terrier
dogs, rifles of forty caliber and in
Vulnerable spears, and drive the tigers
out of their jungles. The vicious dogs
go in and hound them. and snarl and
howl threateningly. The tigers are
gradually driven from point to point
by the bowling dogs and shrieking
natives. and are finally worked into
gigantic and strong netting, nine or ten
feet high and with interstices seven OF
eight inches square. Then the Chef
ties, as these queer natives are called,
range themselves along the sides,
and when the tigers lunge at them
they are met at every point by CLEAN.
ing spears. Such bowling and snarl-
ing, combined with the shouts of the
natives, sounds like the wailing OF
the damned. The native women are
on hand, too, and lend their aid. and
when the government officers join in
the European ladies are perched con-
veniently in trees, to lend bit OF
life to the scene. A Mexican bull
fight is nowhere alongside of tiger
hunt o. one of these hunts last
June was perched in tree by the
side of the netting in which the howl
ing tigers were. got out on limb,
and didn't notice for a minute that
one of my legs was inconveniently
near the tigers. A howl from big
tiger as he sprang toward it re.
minded me of it, however, and l made
haste not only to remove my leg, but
to remove myself from the limb. ]
did it in a marvelously short space OF
time, too.
The royal Bengal tiger is about nine
feet long from tip to tip, and don't
know how high he is. They are of
all heights. They are invariably
striped, and very prettily, too. might
and dark brown stripes. A hundred
rupees is now offered by the govern
ment for every old or young tiger
killed. Their skins are worth from
twenty-five to thirty rupees each, in
the rough. All through the tiger
regions it is very malarous, and dam
gerous to health on this account.
Many amusing as well as tragic
things happen in these tiger hunts.
For instance, one night last August I
was coming home, near the edge of
small town. ] heard tremendous.
row near the halting-station, and did
not know what to make of it. went
on home, however. and about nine
O. clock in came the landlord in great
glee. He had for some days had a
great trap set for porcupines, and on
this particular night he and several
others had been sitting in a tree
watching for tigers. They got a
glimpse of one finally, and fired. The
tiger scampered away. They didn't
hit him, but he ran right into the por-
cupine trap, and as it weighed $50
pounds he couldn't drag it to make
much Roadway, and they gathered him
in. He was one of the biggest and
handsomest ever saw.
And this reminds me of what for.
got to say before, that tiger when
shot always runs the way he was look
ing at the time, and never any other
way. inexperienced hunters. who
have not known thus, have oftentimes
lost their lives in consequence OF
shooting and only wounding the tiger
when he was looking at them. All
old hunters, on the contrary, always
wait till the tiger turns his head.
Then they shoot. and if they don't
happen to kill, the tiger goes the other
way. This, all the time supposing
that he doesn't see the man who
shoots him when he pulls the trigger.
San Francisco Examiner