THE TIGKESS'S LEAP. 123 



But for the strong breeze disturbing my aim through the 

 swaying of the sapling, I should in all probability have 

 broken her neck and killed her on the spot ; however, I had 

 reason to be satisfied with the termination of this adventure, 

 as were also the villagers; but Doolap, the trusty, looked 

 glum, never being able to give any account of those two bits 

 of lead which he let fly into the tigress's face. 



A native saying is, that whereas a deer can leap twenty 

 cubits, a tiger leaps twenty-one. On the occasion above re- 

 corded, the distance between the root of the tree to which I 

 clung and the tigress's " form " was exactly eight paces, say 

 twenty and a-half feet, a fair standing jump for her to make 

 with a ball in her shoulder, and from a lower to a higher 

 elevation. She seemed to have missed my body in her spring, 

 and unable to strike me down with the disabled arm next 

 to me, to have reared up with the intention of seizing me 

 with her teeth. 



