Sunday Washington globe., 1902-03-02
Fish and Tiger Story BY an
Englishman.
PLAYING WITH FISH
This Tiger Amused Himself Like a
House Cat t--Remarkable Tale Told
BY a Hunter Who Played With the
Animal and stroked It's Furi

We were travelling along the north
branch of the Gadevey river.
left camp al an early hour in tile morn
ing for the purpose OF fishing. While I
carried my rife with me, had no inten
tion Of going out of my way to find game.
On the previous afternoon had observed
what seemed to be a capital spot in the
bend of the river, aud il was to this place
fastened as / left camp. Catching a frog
for bait, l flung in the hook, and il wasn't
five minutes before / was meeting with
such luck that all thought of tigers,
snakes iackals and hYenas were driven out
of my mind.
had landed half dozen good sized fsh
aud was lust then playing a larger one
when slight noise startled me, and
looked around to see such a sight as has
seldom come to the eyes Of a sportsman
A full grown tiger was within five feet of
me playing with one Of the fish. It was the
last one pulled ont and in IT'S dying agonies
it was jumping about on the grass. Every
time Il moved the tiger would reach out
paw in playful way, and once or twice he
struck hard enough to move the FISH three
OF four feet
tell you was a badly frightened man,
and all l could do was to sit there with
mouth and eyes open. The tiger had
erept down from the bluffs, aud why he
hadn't attacked me was a mystery. He
went from Ash to fish, turning them over
with his paw, and time and again brushing
me with his tail as he moved about MY
rifle was ten feet away, leaning against a
bush, and 1 might have been idiot enough
to try to reach il but for a warning
Mv ,aranun1 aavrgoftt had foTlornsasI Il vf,.o -
see what luck | had. He came into the
ueighborhood while the tiger was playing
with the FISH, and, softly climbing a tree
he uttered the call of a bird to attract my
attention and then sang out: "Do nothing
70 provoke the tiger masterl He is a
hiloweele, and if you do not cross Kim he
will go awayW He meant that the spirit Of
good nature had been transformed and
it was clearly the common sense way to
follow his advice.
As she beast gave me no attention
turned to the fish tugging at theend of my
line and landed him. He was of good size
and full of vitality and the tiger waited
in a playful way until removed the hook
and threw the fish on the grass Then he
sprang for it as a kitten would fox a ball Of
yarn, and he played with it in the same
way. 1t was laughable, in spite of the cir
] cumstances, to witness his actions.
He would run around in circles, as you
have seen a young dog do, sometimes al.
most leapiug over me- and then again he
would become the cat aud creep softly for.
ward to pounce upon one of the fish
Each one as caught was flung to him, and it
was a full half hour before he grew tired of
the sport. / expected he would turn to me
sooner or later, but the native saw the
change of demeanor first and called
Master, the hiloweele is going to play with
you, Be as clay in his power"
The tiger suddenly left the last fish landed
and came stalking over to me, purring like
cat and acting very playfully. His hfst
move was to worm his head under my left
aim, and Pm telling you the solemn truth
when ! say that smoothed down his fur as
if he had been a favorite dog. I had on
big straw bat, and this he got hold of in his
teeth aud played with it for ten minutes, or
until he had torn it all TO pieces. had no
more bait to fish with and sat there waiting
for the tigers next move.
When he had finished the hat, he came
over and rubbed his head against me and
puTred in pleased way. and rubbed him
with my hand from nose to tail. ] gradu-
ally got over my scare but was vet very
The sun was getting well up and very hot,
and the beast would soon be seeking his
lair. In about thirty minutes from the
time he appeared the tiger began to show a
change Of demeanor. He became nervous
and uneasy, aud the hair on his back stood
up at intervals. I judged that he had got
the scent of my servant, and such proved
to be the case.
dared not rise to my feet, but I made up
my mind that if the tiger attacked me
should make a spring off the bank into the
river. 1t was infested with crocodiles, but
there was not much choice between being
eaten by beast or saurian
Once the tiger glared at me and growled.
but the next moment whined as if afraid
and edged up toward me as if for prolec-
ton The servant had been keeping a
watchful eye on my strange playmate, and
he now believed the time had come for de-
cisive action He therefore fred his pistol
and shouted at the top of his voice The
effect was immediate The beast dropped
his tail, uttered long drawn whine, and,
with a sort of farewell glance al me, he
bolted for the forest and disappeared. 1
had looked him over pretty we'll and had
noticed among other things that he had
broken claw on the right paw, We did not
break camp that day.
Just before sunset, as we sat in groups
smoking our pipes tiger charged boldly
in among the servants and seized one and
attempted to make off We rallied to pre-
vent, and the beast knocked two other men
over before he was dispatched When we
came to examine the body, / had not the
slightest difficulty in identifying Il az that
Of my playmate Of the morning