30 THE TOWER MENAGERIE. 
tribute of servile minds, in the fearful dread and crouch- 
ing awe with which they prostrated themselves at the 
feet of both. 
Nothing in fact can exceed the terror which this formi- 
dable animal inspires in those countries which are liable 
to his devastations. More restricted, however, in this 
respect than the Lion, he is entirely unknown in Africa, 
and is rarely, if ever, to be met with in Asia on this side 
the Indus. In the south of China, and in the larger 
Asiatic Islands, such as Sumatra and Java, he is unhap- 
pily but too common; but it is said, we know not with 
what degree of truth, that in the last mentioned locality 
he is less ferocious than in the Peninsula of Hindostan. 
This is truly the cradle of his existence and the seat of 
his empire, in which he disputes dominion even with the 
Lion himself, who is comparatively rare in the Indian 
jungles, and with whom the Tiger has been sometimes 
known to join in deadly and successful struggle for the 
mastery. Endowed with a degree of force, which the 
Lion and the Elephant alone can equal, he carries off a 
buffalo in his tremendous jaws, almost without relaxing 
from his usual speed. With a single stroke of his claws 
he rips open the body of the largest animals; and is 
said to suck their blood with insatiable avidity. Of the 
correctness of this latter statement, at least in its full 
extent, there is however strong reason to doubt. The 
Tiger does not, according to the most credible accounts, 
exhibit this propensity.to drinking the blood of his 
victims in any greater degree than the rest of his car- 
nivorous and blood-thirsty companions. In this, as in 
other instances, fear has drawn largely on credulity, and 
