The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-09-26
FIERCEST HORNED CATTLE.
THE PHILIPPINE TIlIARAU HAS
 NEVER BEEN FAMED.

Natives Afraid to Hunt it, Although it
 is the Smallest of the OK Family
 Professor Worcesters Hard Task of
 Getting a Shot at One-Can't be
 Trapped.
 Unpatriotic though it may sound, the American bison was great only in appearance. His shaggy frontlet, his wild eye and his mighty coronet con- cealed as cowardly a ton of flesh as ever stirred, says the Washington Star.
 But even if we have to admit that the big Bos Americanus of the United States is not worthy of honor except as a marvel Cf the animal world. the Spanish-American war saved our face; for when we acquired the Philippines We acquired with them a buffalo that is the wickedest thing that ever moved on four legs. The Philippine carabao or water buffalo is wicked enough when wild, and even in a tanned state is prone to attack human beings sud- denly. But the timarau, although much smaller than the carabao, is so mean and savage that he will search out carabao and kill them for the mere love of killing.
 Nobody ever has tanned a timarau. Nobody in the Philippines wants to try; indeed, few natives of the Philip pines ever want to see one. The fear of the tiger and lion in India and Af- rica is as nothing compared with the fear of the timarau in the Island of Mindoro.
 So deeply rooted is the fear of the furtive, belligerent, relentless little OK that Profs. Worcester and Steere were unable even to find out what kind of beast it was when they visited the Philippines in 1888 on an exploring expedition.
 Everybody warned them against the creature, but no two descriptions agreed. Prof. Worcester says that one man solemnly assured them that it had only one horn, which grew straight from the top of it's head. Another de- clared that he had never seen any horns on it, but that it certainly had only one eye, which was set right in the middle of it's forehead.
 These tales spurred them on, and they visited Mindoro, only to search in vain for several months until they found a tribe called the Mangyans who knew it well. They said that it was like a small buffalo, with straight horns running upward and backward like those of goat. They expressed great fear of it, and told him 1t attack ed and killed big water buffalo every time it got a chance, and how it would charge a man whenever it was ap- preached.
 Finding out about timarau and find ing timarau were two different things. The creatures were so marvelously shy and cunning that, although the party followed trails day after day which showed where whole herds had congre- gated, they never even caught a glimpse of the animal itself.
 At last after more weeks of hunting native tracker led them to a hiding place of timarau; but he did so only after he had forced an agreement that he be permitted to run as soon as he had located the game for the hunters. He pointed into the bushes, whispered "Timarau, senor!" and raced madly away, his face gray with fear.
 Prof. Worcester worked his way carefully through the bushes, but could not see the buffalo for a long time, so perfectly was the animal concealed. At last he saw his head and fired, but just as he did so the bull tossed his head and the shot missed him.
 "As I fired a second time" says the professor, there came crashes in the jungle on every side of me. had walked into a whole herd of timarau without knowing it. One old bull stood his ground and I gave him bullet in the shoulder. Furiously be whrled around on me. As I pushed the sliding block of my rifle to throw another cartridge into the magazine the mechanism jammed and left me to face wounded timarau with useless gun. Why that brute did not charge has always been a mystery 70 me. I never afterward knew one to fail to do it under similar circumstances. What he did do was to dash madly into the brush after the herd
 Prof. Worcester found his tracker up 8 tree and had such a hard time coax ing him to come down that they lost the trail.
 Despite careful hunting and despite the fact that they were in timarau country, they got no other shot that trip, and it was not until the next trip that Prof. Worcester got one of these buffalo, and then only by firing half on guess into the bushes where k The could see one indistinctly. It is rarely that these little buffalo are . found in any except cover so dense that the hunter must cut his way through it with knife, foot by foot. This and the fact that if he happens to get within scent of a lurking buffalo ' the animal will charge him as quick as lightning and gore and trample him to pieces combines to assure the little 1 forest buffalo of Mindoro long season of immunity.
 The natives like the meat of tn. | timarau, and as other food often falls them they are eager enough for it; but they are far too much afraid of these cattle to hunt them, even when they are starving.