IS ^ TKE EOTAL TIGEE OF BENGAL. 



xThQ tiger is a cat in all his actions, and ttose 

 who have studied him ia his native haunts must 

 have been struck with their resemhlance. 



He is one of the symbols of power in the East ; 

 in China, the judicial throne is covered with his 

 skin; and he has always occupied a prominent 

 place in the menageries and parks, or rumnas, of 

 Oriental princes, kept for show, and often, half or 

 wholly tamed, led about by a chain, or confined in 

 large cages and enclosures where he was made to 

 fight with other tigers or with buffaloes, elephants, 

 rhinoceros, or even with the horse and other ani- 

 mals, for the amusement of the native courts and 

 their visitors. 



I have seen several tiger fights at Lucknow 

 in former years, before King Wajid Ally was de- 

 posed; and the memorable scene that followed 

 that monarch's removal from his government — 

 when an auction of tigers, leopards, cheetahs, 

 elephants, rhinoceros, giraffes, and other animals, 

 took place — had probably never been, and never will 

 be, equalled. A dozen tigers, sold to the highest 

 bidder, at ten rupees each, was perhaps one of 

 the most remarkable purchases ever made, not sur- 

 passed even by that of a brace of rhinoceros at 250 

 rupees, or a giraffe at 500 rupees. All this has now 

 changed; the rumnas and wild beasts have long 

 since disappeared. Lucknow is no more as she has 

 been. The tiger-throne of Hyder AUy, the tiger of 

 Mysore, at Seringapatam, and his toy tiger devouring 



