164 TRAPPING WILD ANIMALS 
game he preys upon has gathered and where the 
village cattle are regularly watered. 
It is quite useless to devote much time in hunt- 
ing the hill or game killing tiger that preys upon 
game alone; they are so scattered over a large tract 
of jungle and so active and wary that it is only by 
accident that they are ever brought to bay. 
The average size of a full-grown tiger is from 
eight and a half to nine feet from nose to tip of 
tail and weight from two hundred and seventy-five 
to three hundred and twenty-five pounds. 
One day an old friend, Tungku S’leman, a petty. 
rajah from Kelantan, then under the Siamese Pro- 
tectorate but now under the British, called on me 
and invited me to go back with him to his district 
to trap or kill tigers, and he assured me I would 
be able to get some fine tiger cubs. I was in fact 
wery anxious to secure a few good specimens of 
young tigers, but as his district was far inland, near 
the boundary line of a small state called “Rawang,” 
I did not think it worth my while to go, for it would 
involve a lot of time, and knowing the Malays and 
their ways so well, it might mean that I would have 
to beat about the country on a wild goose chase. A 
Malay will always exaggerate, no matter on what 
subject, and, as stated elsewhere in my articles, they 
finally believe what they are telling. They will 
never do today what can be put off until tomorrow 
—“Nou-tee Bess-so” (wait tomorrow) is one of the 
principal words in their vocabulary. 
