The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-04-11


scarcely follow it. and he was 80 aocu-
rate in his aim that he never missed the
object.
FOND OF BITING.
My own specimen of the Ikanda was an
ungrateful wretch, and as treacherous
as possible. I tried for months to tame
him. He would eat from my hand with
perfect equanimity, and appeared to be
as tame as kitten, until he had secured
the last morsel Of food held IN sight;
then he would snap my finger as quickly
as he had seized the food. Several times
when gave him food with my fingers
he took the morsel in his mouth and at
the same nom emit bit my finger. They
are very silent animals and during the
whole time that 1 had this one, I never
heard him utter the slightest sound ex-
cept low, faint squeak when angry
AS have already stated, the grasp of
the ikanda is remarkable. have had
this little beast seize my finger, and
have worked for several minutes at
time unable to extricate it. The more
you try to take anything away from him
the tighter he grasps it; have had him
almost wiring the skin Off my fingers.
The only way to relax his grasp was to
gently remove one toe at time by put
ting stick or pencil under it, or to dis
tract his attention and induce him to
walk away.
Some Of the stories told me by the ma
tives about his grasp were almost In
credible. l was told dozen times or
moro by those from different parts that
the hunters in the interior often made
use OF the iksnda for the singular pur-
pose of catching leopards. It is said that
they set deep in the ground row of
posts, leaving between them space of
about one inch or Ii little more; then ut
distance of a foot or SO away from this
they place another row in like manner.
These posts rise about two feet above the
ground; over them is lashed a row of
short pieces of wood. The openings at
the ends of the two rows of posts are
closed up. and in this strong stookade is
placed full grown ikanda; on the
outside of the barricade near the openings
are placed some pieces of fresh raw meat.
A STRONG GRASP.
A leopard in the neghborhood will
soon get scent of this, and come to steal
it. AS he crouohes in front of the stock
AIDE the ikanda, angry at his intrusion
will thrust his foot through a crack and
grasp the leg Of the leopard. This he
Wi h0ld FNr
that the great beast cannot release him
self, and that the little captor behind the
bars will hold him until the hunters
come to STAY him. They say that there
is less danger of the leopard getting
away from the ikanda than there is OF
his breaking out of the strongest trap
they can build, the more he struggles to
escape the tighter he is held. So the ma
tive hunter approaches without fear and
kills him.
I cannot vouch for thu truth of this
statement; but while it is singular it
may be founded in fact. One thing that
makes me inclined to give it credit is
that it came to me from several different
sources In the several accounts the de-
tails varied, but the substance Of the story
was always the same. In my own ex-
perienoe 1 can say with certainty that l
have never seen any animal which pos
sessed such powerful grasp in proper
ton to its size. I have frequently tried
to take a small stick away from him,
and could not do SO by pulling at it.
To be sure, I never dared exert all my
strength lest shoud injure the animal;
but the natives have often declared that
/ could pull the creature apart before I
could break his grasp.
r. L. GARNER.