290 THE TRAIL OF THE TIGER 



In the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, lower Burma 

 and southern Siam, the jungle is too dense and con- 

 tinuous to permit of beating up tigers with a line 

 of elephants. In fact, as compared with India, 

 almost no tiger hunting is done in these countries, 

 and that little consists of sitting up over a kill, or, 

 in the dry season, over a water hole. The latter is 

 a favorite method of Chinamen who hunt tigers 

 for the skin and for the whiskers which, like the 

 horn of the rhino, are largely valued on account 

 of certain occult influences they are supposed to 

 exert in compounding medical charms. But in 

 none of this Far Eastern section are the natives 

 hunters by inclination, and not enough hunting is 

 done by the handful of resident whites to replace 

 ignorance with skill. Besides, the average native 

 is not in sympathy with hunting ; he has no stomach 

 for the game; so that pursuit of the tiger in this 

 part of the world is done under extremely difficult 

 conditions, and with no great measure of success. 

 In sections of Corea, and on parts of the Chinese 

 coast, however, Chinamen, armed with great, three- 

 tined pitchfork-like spears, hunt out the cave- 

 dwelling tiger and become not only expert but 

 brave and dependable. And this tiger is fully as 

 formidable as the one of India, requiring of the 

 sportsman both nerve and courage. 



Hunting from the back of an elephant has no ele- 



