Sporting Notes in the Far East. 61 



It appears, that so innocent was the labourer of the presence of 

 the man-eater, in fact of everything that was going on around him, 

 except his own immediate work : that on hearing the shot fired, he 

 was at once under the impression that it was his own precious 

 person that had been aimed at, instead of the tiger's, and was in 

 consequence most indignant. He not being half satisfied, even 

 when shown the dead carcass of his would-be destroyer ; and 

 instead of expressing thankfulness and gratitude, appeared on the 

 contrary quite sorry and disgusted, that he had not been left to 

 his fate. 



I am positive that a more apathetic, lazy, indifferent race of men, 

 do not exist on the face of the earth. The women do all the work ; 

 the men contenting themselves by continuous smoking and sleep- 

 ing, and even that appears to be at times, rather hard work. 



Tigers are also frequently met with in the country around Amoy, 

 in southern China ; and one or two are generally shot every year, 

 by the Europeans living in that settlement. But there is a great 

 "stopper" to being very successful, owing to the difficulty in procur- 

 ing beaters, on account of the holy dread that felis tigris is held in 

 by " John Chinaman"; and in consequence, a well organised drive 

 is a thing of impossibility. 



The tigers live chiefly in the many caves at the foot of the 

 surrounding hills, and when "laying out" frequent the thick fields of 

 sugar-cane. They subsist mostly on native pariah dogs and the 



