80 A TIGER FIGHT. 



which is too narrow for the tiger to turn in. As the fire 

 begins to singe his whiskers he gradually backs out. The 

 man as soon as he has opened the door, commences returning 

 towards the crowd, at the same slow pace and the slower he 

 returns the more applause he gains. The tiger having backed 

 out of his burning prison is rather astonished at finding him- 

 self surrounded by hundreds of people each pointing a spear 

 at him. If he is a bold tiger he canters round the circle 

 almost touching the spears ; finding no opening he returns to 

 the centre, fixes his eye on one spot and with a loud roar 

 dashes straight at it. He is received on the spears, and 

 though he crushes many as if they were mere reeds, in half a 

 minute he falls dead, pierced with a hundred wounds. In 

 some, instances however, the roar and the charge is too 

 much for the Javanese and they give way. The sport then 

 becomes rather dangerous to the lookers on. 1 



On the second of August, I drove to Djokjakarta, forty- 

 nine miles from Solo, visiting the Temples of Prambanan on 

 the way. The first I came to was one of the Thousand 

 Temples, a mass of large ruins surrounded by an infinite 

 number of smaller ones. The four entrance gates are each 

 guarded by two large figures, beautifully carved out of one 

 solid piece of stone ; further on, I came upon two very fine 



1 Le Comte De Beauvoir " Voyage Autour du Monde," gives a 

 description of the tigers which are kept for these fights. After having 

 been caught they are shut up for fifteen days and fed on the carcases 

 of dogs, sheep, and offal of all kinds. The stench from this is perfectly 

 unbearable. They seem to lose, by this treatment, nearly all their 

 courage, and few of them show any severe fighting. 



Mr. Beete Jukes, the naturalist to the surveying vessel " Fly," 

 Captain Blackwood, witnessed one of these tiger fights with a buffalo. 

 The tiger appeared very mangy and half starved and was soon put 

 liors de combat. 



