DREAD OF TIGERS. 31 



long and earnest oration, of which the only word I 

 understood was "machan," the Javanese for " tiger." 

 Having recourse to Hill's interpretation, I found he 

 was begging me not to walk in the dark, as tigers 

 were very abundant all round, which he forcibly 

 assured us "eat men ;'' and that they had been 

 known to come even into the house. We found in 

 the front verandah a guard of four spearmen, keep- 

 ing watch against such an occurrence. We thought 

 they were joking, till we found that none of them- 

 selves went a few yards beyond the house without a 

 torch. One man going down to bathe in the pool just 

 below, another accompanied him with a torch ; and 

 we observed four men coming up the road with two 

 large torches, who, they said, were coming home 

 from their work to the kampong hard by. We still 

 thought these fears a little exaggerated ; but that 

 very night a man was killed by a tiger at a village 

 about two miles from us, as he was going out to his 

 work before daylight with two others. His body was 

 recovered the next day. 



Nov. 13. — We were out with our guns at the 

 earliest dawn— Captain Blackwood and I in one di- 

 rection, Evans and Hill in another. Immediately 

 beyond the fences of the kampong we saw both wild 

 pigs and jungle-fowl, and in half a mile had killed 

 one of the former and a brace of the latter. Had 

 we known the country and the " lie " of the covers, 

 and had a dog or two, we might have had splendid 

 sport ; but our attendants did not understand the 



