226 



A TIGER IN THE NETS. 



PERHAPS one of the strangest methods of hunting 

 tigers is by capturing them in nets, and when 

 so entangled, spearing them to death. That this 

 method of capture dates from very early times 

 we have evidence in the fable of the Lion and 

 the Mouse, which is undoubtedly of Indian origin, 

 being founded on the beast fables of the Pancha 

 Tantra, one of the oldest Sanskrit books. 



It is hard to conceive so large and ferocious 

 an animal as a tiger, with his strong teeth and 

 sharp claws, imprisoned in so frail a contrivance 

 as a mesh of fine cords. One would think that 

 with a single bound he would break and be through 

 them ; or that with his sharp teeth he would 

 quickly sever the thin cords to shreds. But it 

 is just this inability to bound, with the entangling 

 skeins of the net clogging all his limbs, and the 

 uselessness of biting through a single mesh when 

 the very effort brings fifty other meshes round 

 his ears, that makes him fall an easy victim to 

 the treacherous net, and keeps him a fast prisoner 

 till the arrival of his human foes, who make short 

 work of him with their spears, since he is unable 

 to offer the least show of fight, so hampered is he 



