IN SUMATRA. 223 



attack. The grave was made deeper than usual, and well 

 protected on the top, as they affirmed that the tiger would 

 certainly try to scrape up the body. The lamentations of the 

 women, which were terrible to hear as the body was taken 

 away, continued till the return of the people from the funeral, 

 and then entirely ceased. It> is difficult to learn whether 

 these were really bitter mournings, or merely the following of 

 their custom. The event, however, cast a visible gloom over 

 the village, and I felt relieved when it returned to its more 

 ordinary ways. For several nights after the funeral the father 

 of the youth, sitting by himself alone in his house, chanted 

 from sundown till daybreak what they call the Tjeritu hari, 

 or death dirge, a most plaintive lament ; and to me it seemed 

 the most saddening, woe-laden wail I had ever heard, rising 

 and falling on the silent night like a wintry wind. 



As expected, the tiger attempted to scrape up the body the 

 night after its burial. Next night and for several others I 

 watched the grave, but the tiger did not keep tryst with me ; 

 but when I was not there it never failed to come. I therefore 

 assisted them to construct a snare to catch it on its first return. 

 A fence was made at all such places as there was a possibility 

 of approach to the grave, leaving on the cleared road a very 

 conspicuous open gate, across which a thin cord was loosely 

 drawn, connected with a green bamboo some thirty feet long 

 bent by the strength of several men into a bow, at whose 

 extremity a sharp spear was so arranged as to be shot athwart 

 the entrance-gate, on the release of the bamboo by the tiger 

 pressing with his breast on the twig-like cord in his way. 

 Every night the trap was re-set for six days, without the tiger's 

 appearance. The seventh it was left unset as apparently use- 

 less ; next morning it was found that the tiger had been within 

 the enclosure, and I saw it faithfully set in the evening. The 

 following morning I was awakened by a great chattering out- 

 side the Balai, and, starting up to learn the cause of the uproar, 

 I was informed that the trap had shot in the night, and the 

 spear had been broken off, but the tiger had not been found. 

 I was soon among the eager crowd, who had armed to beat the 

 woods.. It was evident from the blood on the spear-shaft that it 

 was sorely wounded, and could not be far off. AVe had little 

 need, ho^vevel•, of gun or spear, for some thirty yards in the 



