224 A NATURALIST'S WAXDE RINGS 



forest we found tlie warm body of the feline. Transfixed from 

 side to side, it had cleared the high fence with one gigantic 

 bound, and fallen dead where it hiy. As soon as it was known 

 that the body had been found, every man, woman and child 



hastened out of the village to see the carcase of their enemy, 

 every individual, save the youngest children, bringing with 

 him a knife or kriss. It was only with the very utmost 

 difficulty that I could, by standing on the body and uttering 

 the direst threats, prevent each of these blades from being 

 thrust into the skin, which I wished to preserve. With what 

 savage delight and revenge they did gloat over that carcase, 

 and run their weapons into its body when they could ! What 

 blood there was about was all used up in dipping them in to 

 insure bravery ; and all passed their krisses broadside over and 

 over the body to absorb the potent emanation from this personi- 

 fication of power and boldness. When the body was being 

 skinned the relatives of many of those who had perished by 

 tigers came and begged for a piece of the heart or brain, that 

 they might revenge themselves by eating it— especially one 

 old woman who had thus lost first her only son, and later had 

 had her husband carried off before her eyes. 



The graveyard of the village was laid out along the river, 

 on each side of a moss-grown path, overshadowed by tall and 

 aged trees. All about grew delicate ferns and shrubs sacred 

 to the dead. Almost at the end of this tall avenue I came 

 one day on a house of some dimensions, with a closed door, 

 having a space in front cleared of vegetation, and kept neatly 

 in order. By peering though an aperture I could see inside, 

 surrounded by a close pavement of stones, a solitary grave- 

 stone. This was the resting-place of the Nene Poyang, or 

 Forefather, who had established the village. When any great 

 trouble overtakes the village, such as many deaths from tigers, 

 or times of scarcity befall them, they assemble here, and killing 

 a goat or a buffalo, they invoke the good offices of the spirit ol 

 their ancestor. If a man have a dispute with another and the 

 matter be referred to his oath, it is over the stone of their 

 ancestor here that he swears. 



