494 



dious tents, pitched in a semicircle: that in which we all assem- 

 bled, and passed the sultry part of the day, was carpeted, and by 

 means of the tattees of aromatic grass, continually watered, kept 

 at a temperature pretty near to that of an April day in England. 

 Here we had a luxurious cold dinner, with a variety of excellent 

 wines, and other liquors, well cooled ; and while we dined the 

 French-horns and clarionets played marches, hunting-pieces de- 

 scriptive of the death of the game, and other slow movements; 

 the tigers still lying in front, and the people still assembled, but 

 retired to a greater distance; where they anxiously waited the 

 signal for skinning and cutting up the slain; for with them the fat 

 of a tiger is a panacea; the tongue dried and pulverized a sovereign 

 specific in nervous cases, and every part applicable to some use; 

 even the whiskers they deem a deadly poison, and most anxiously, 

 but secretly, seek them, as the means, in drink, of certain destruc- 

 tion to an enemy. 



As my share of the spoil, I have reserved one of the talons of 

 the tiger which pursued Lady Day, and intend to have it set in 

 gold, with a swivel and fillet, ornamented with diamonds, and fill- 

 ing it with ottar of roses, I shall sometime hence surprize her with 

 it, and insist upon her giving it a place among the trinkets of her 

 watch, as a trophy ; the " spolia opima," torn from the body of an 

 enemy slain in battle. I have reserved also a skin for you; which 

 shall when cured be sent to you; and I shall hope to see it, ere many 

 years elapse, an hammer-cloth to an handsome chariot of yours in 

 the streets of London. 



Dinner over, the tigers skinned, and their flesh and offal dis- 



