62 NATURAL HISTORY IN ANECDOTE. 



but leopards or panthers are always called so, and by our- 

 selves as well as by the natives. This turned out to be a 

 panther. My gun chanced not to be put together; and, while 

 my servant was doing it, the collector and two medical men, 

 who had recently arrived, in consequence of the cholera 

 morbus having just then reached Ceylon from the Continent, 

 came to my door, the former armed with a fowling-piece, and 

 the two latter with remarkably blunt hog-spears. They insisted 

 upon setting off, without waiting for my gun, a proceeding 

 not much to my taste. The tiger (I must continue to call 

 him so) had taken refuge in a hut, the roof of which, like 

 those of Ceylon huts in general, spread to the ground like 

 an umbrella; the only aperture into it was a small door, 

 about four feet high. The collector wanted to get the tiger 

 out at once. I begged to wait for my gun; but no the 

 fowling-piece, (loaded with ball, of course,) and the two hog- 

 spears, were quite enough. I got a hedge-stake, and awaited 

 my fate, from very shame. At this moment, to my great 

 delight, there arrived from the fort an English officer, two 

 artillery-men, and a Malay captain; and a pretty figure we 

 should have cut without them, as the event will show. I 

 was now quite ready to attack, and my gun came a minute 

 afterwards. The whole scene which follows took place within 

 an enclosure, about twenty feet square, formed, on three sides, 

 by a strong fence of palmyra leaves, and on the fourth by 

 the hut. At the door of this, the two artillery-men planted 

 themselves: and the Malay captain got at the top, to frighten 

 the tiger out, by worrying it an easy operation, as the huts 

 there are covered with cocoa-nut leaves. One of the artillery- 

 men wanted to go in to the tiger, but we would not suffer 

 it. At last the beast sprang. This man received him on his 

 bayonet, which he thrust apparently down his throat, firing 

 his piece at the same moment The bayonet broke off short, 

 leaving less than three inches on the musket; the rest remained 

 in the animal, but was invisible to us. The shot probably 



