THE TIGER. 55 



same way as one would a domestic orphan kitten. Tigers do not 

 often breed in confinement ; in tlie Zoological Society's gardens 

 they have, however, bred about half the number of times of the 

 lions. There have been several well-authenticated cases of tigresses 

 breeding with lions, and the hybrids hving and reaching 

 maturity. 



The colouring of the tiger is so varied that occasionally indi- 

 viduals are found with a pale or creamy white fur, and the stripes 

 but faintly marked. They are called " white tigers," and are 

 not very numerous ; although specimens of this variety have been 

 exhibited in London somewhere about the year 1820, At a later 

 date Yan Amburgh, the whilom renowned lion-king, whose collec- 

 tion of trained lions, tigers, &c., used to be such a great attraction 

 to Londoners, and their performance a constant source of pleasure 

 to the Duke of WelHngton, had a black tiger, a colouring that is 

 rarely met with. 



Amongst the natives of some provinces in India the fat of the 

 tiger is considered a specific against rheumatism, and the claws 

 and whiskers are considered charms, the former against the 

 attack of animals, and the latter is supposed to give power to 

 their possessor to obtain the love of any member of the 

 opposite sex he or she may select ; by others a necklet of claws 

 is deemed an antidote to the effects of the " evil eye," and the 

 whiskers contain a deadly poison, and must be made innocuous 

 by burning them off the animal immediately it is killed. 



It seems strange to read that in a bygone age people possessed 

 the power of taming and subduing such ferocious animals as 

 tigers, so that they were able to use them for the chase. This 

 power is certainly among one of the lost arts; but that the 

 people of the East once possessed it seems to be beyond 

 question. Marco Polo* says: "The Emperor (Kooblai Khan 

 of Tartary, 1260—1294) hath numbers of leopards trained to 

 the chase, and hath also a great many lynxes taught in hke 

 manner to catch game, and hath also several great Kons (meaning 

 tigers) bigger than those of Babylonia; beasts whose skins are 



4 "Ye Book of Ser Marco Polo, ye Venetian, conceining ye Kingdoms of ye 

 East." Newly done into English by Henry Ynle. 1874. 



