The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1907-07-18
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THE FEAST OF TIGERS 1
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BY r. -HOLT-LoMAx. n
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a WsD CTS Q
Bowman Livingston had been back
from India only week, yet the fell
lows at the Colonial Club, among
whom he used to bask in an atmos-
phere of high regard, were already
commencing to look uneasy when he
began-no; not began; resumed his
interminable stories about tiger hunt
ing.
1t is not given to every man who
carries big guns to India to bring
down three fine tigers, and everybody
felt that Livingston should be al
lowed little pardonable swagger,
but 1T is wearisome to have to follow
through dinner after dinner an en-
thusiast's long tale about howdahs
and shikaris and dak bungalows and
all the Hindustanee rest of it. So it
was with gratitude that we all list
ened to the interruption of Lieuten-
ant de la Roche when he told tale
that stopped poor Livingston's tiger
"reminiscences forever. Our buoyant
friend was laying down the law that
the tiger takes to man eating only
when he is too aged and decrepit to
hunt wild animals De la Roche. a
dry, brown little fellow late of the
French army in Tonquin, begged his
pardon most deliberately, and said:
Il know you will believe that I am
not animated by a spirit of captious
contradiction when / tell You of my
experience to the contrary. The Incl
dent was SO awful that I am reiuc-
tant to speak of it. | assure you that
every time | hear or read the word
tiger the air about me seems to vi
brate with the shrieks that I shall
never forget.
was leading surveying expe-
dition last year over the Pou Cha
Hong Mountains, on the way into
China, when we suddenly found our
selves menaced by a horde of tigers.
Nothing / had ever heard prepared
me for such siege as this. In the
daytime we could see the huge, 81
lent, black-and-yellow beasts sinking
through the bush not far from our
column. They never came near
enough to attack us in force, but they
trotted and walked watchfully along
course parallel with ours, and
seemed to be always waiting for a
chance to pounce upon any stray
gler. You may believe that we adj
vahced with absolutely unbroken
unity.
Il had always believed that the
tiger is solitary creature, that hunts
alone, or, at most, in pairs. But here
they were actually stalking us in
numbers-we often saw as many as
seven or eight at one time. Although
they only menaced us at long range
in the day, the tigers were very dan
gerous at close range after night
fall. Under the advice of our tai
pan, or head man. / made the camp
very compact, and always ended the
days march at least one hour before
the brief twilight. Then we built
ring of camp-fres around our stop
ping place to keep the tigers away.
You Americans have heard of the aw-
fui temperature in the Philippines.
Believe me it is still hotter and more
moist in Tonquin. Add to that the
warmth from the campfires, and you
shall derive from the sum total some
idea of the awful heat we had to
undergo every night. The air was
sitting. We slept very little, and
then only fitfully.
One night, as we were doing in
side our ring of fire in the Wang
S Hoa Forest, we were aroused by the
cries Of human beings in awful dis
tress. My friends. have heard at
the opera and in the theatre sounds
which represented the sounds of
many souls in agony, but never have
listened to such shrieks as those.
The number of voices seemed. to be
myriad. There could be no doubt Of
the dire extremity Of the people.
In moment every one in our camp
was wide awake. | called the tai
pan.
Get the boys ready, I ordered
him. We must save those people.
My lord, he replied, 1T is mad
ness. Do not lead us outside of the
ring Of fires. If we go we shall die.
The tigers will devour us. They are
at work now. 1t is the cries Of their
victims that we hear. We can do no
good, and il we go we die
Gradually the cries diminished in
volume, died into silence / felt
rather than heard the rustic Of every
leaf In the forest. Sleep was i'm
possible for any of us. We tossed
on our cots, oppressed BY the
sliding heat Of our protecting fires,
and frightened By the screams that
still rang In our ears
1t was safe to venture out st