118 Java. 



Ball came to pay me a visit. He told me that two evenings 

 before a boy had been killed and eaten by a tiger close to 

 Madjo-agong. He was riding on a cart drawn by bullocks, 

 and was coming home about dusk on the main road ; and 

 when not half a mile from the village a tiger sprang upon 

 him, carried him oif into the jungle close by, and devoured 

 him. Next morning his remains were discovered, consisting 

 only of a few mangled bones. The waidono had got togeth- 

 er about seven hundred men, and was in chase of the animal, 

 which, I afterward heard, they found and kitted. They only 

 use spears when in pursuit of a tiger in this way. They sur- 

 round a large tract of country, and draw gradually together 

 till the animal is inclosed in a compact ring of armed men. 

 When he sees that there is no escape he generally makes a 

 spring, and is received on a dozen spears, and almost instant- 

 ly stabbed to death. The skin of an animal thus killed is, of 

 course, worthless, and in this case the skull, which I had beg- 

 ged Mr. Ball to secure for me, was hacked to pieces to divide 

 the teeth, which are worn as charms. 



After a week at Wonosalem I returned to the foot of the 

 mountain, to a village named Djapannan, which was sur- 

 rounded by several patches of forest, and seemed altogether 

 pretty well suited to my pursuits. The chief of the village 

 had prepared two small bamboo rooms on one side of his own 

 court-yard to accommodate me, and seemed inclined to assist 

 me as much as he could. The weather was exceedingly hot 

 and dry, no rain having fallen for several months, and there 

 was, in consequence, a great scarcity of insects, and especially 

 of beetles. I therefore devoted myself chiefly to obtaining a 

 good set of the birds, and succeeded in making a tolerable 

 collection. All the peacocks we had hitherto shot had had 

 short or imperfect tails, but I now obtained two magnificent 

 specimens more than seven feet long, one of which I preserved 

 entire, while I kept the train only attached to the tail of two 

 or three others. When this bird is seen feeding on the 

 ground, it appears wonderful how it can rise into the air with 

 such a long and cumbersome train of feathers. It does so, 

 however, with great ease, by running quickly for a short dis- 

 tance, and then rising obliquely, and will fly over trees of a 

 considerable height. I also obtained here a specimen of the 



