HAMLYN'S MENAGERIE MAGAZINE. 
79 
his entire seaboard, destroyed his salt ovens, and 
allowed him some 1,000 francs to sustain regal 
court for twelve months. 
"You want the King?" he exclaimed. 
"Yes, King, glad to see you," I replied. 
I then called my boy to interpret my wants. 
Gorilla, Chimpanzee, Deer, Snake, Birds, to all 
of which he gave a sickly smile. Finally he 
ejaculated. i — 
"You dash me gin and a shirt?" 
"Certainly," I replied. "Boy, six bottles 
gin and six shirks." 
I must say that during the whole time I was 
in that region the King took a fatherly interest 
in me. I owe to him for many of my rarest speci- 
mens. He was a daily visitor to my compound. 
Whether it was Dewar's Whisky, the German 
Gin, or myself, he came for history alone will 
show; still he always had my respects. I wished 
him well. 
AN INDIAN EXPERIMENT. 
SUBDUING A BENGAL TIGER. 
Bv G. W. D. Coxnolly. 
In the world of animal life, there is no beast 
more ferocious ;han a Royal Bengal Tiger, and I 
am doubtful if any European juggler, tamer, or 
even mesmerist, risk repeating just once an ex- 
periment that may be daily witnessed in India, 
if you know where to go to see it. 
Some little time ago the whole population cf 
a small village, not far from Dakka, situated on 
the confines of a jungle, was thrown into a panic 
at the appearance of an enormous tigress, at dawn 
of day. These wild beasts never leave their dens 
but at night, when they go in search of prey and 
water. But this unusual circumstance was due 
to the fact that the beast was a mother, and she 
had been deprived of her two cubs, which had 
been carried away by a daring hunter, and she 
was in search of them. 
Two men and a child had already become 
her victims, when an aged Adept, bent on his 
daily round, emerging from the fate of the 
pagoda, saw the situation and understood it at a 
glance. Chanting a mantrom he went straight 
to the beast, which, with flaming eye and foam- 
ing mouth, crouched near a tree ready for a new 
victim. W T hen at about ten feet from' the tigress, 
without interrupting his modulated prayer, the 
words of which no layman comprehends, he began 
a regular process of mesmerisation — that is, he 
made passes. A terrific howl, which struck a 
chill into the heart of every human being in the 
place, was then heard. This long, ferocious, 
drawling howl gradually subsided into a series oi 
plaintive broken sobs, as if the bereaved mother 
was uttering her complaints, and then, to the 
terror of the crowds, which had taken refuge in 
trees and in the houses, the beast made a tremen- 
dous leap — on the holy man as they thought. 
They were mistaken; she was at his feet, rolling 
in the dust, and writhing. A few moments more 
and she remained motionless, with her enormous 
head laid on her fore-paws, and her bloodshot but 
now mild eye rivetted on the face of the Adept. 
Then the holy man of India sat beside the tigress 
and tenderly smoothed her striped skin and patted 
her back, until her frowns became fainter and 
fainter, and half an hour later all the village was 
standing around this group; the Fakir's head 
lying on the tigress's back as on a pillow, his 
right hand on her paw and his left thrown on the 
sod under the terrible mouth, from which the long 
red protruding tongue was faintly licking it. 
This is the way the Hindu wonder workers 
tame the wildest beasts in India. Can European 
tamers, with their white-hot iron rods, which arc- 
merely a fake to incite wonder and terror on the 
spectators, do as much? Of course, every Adept 
is not endowed with such power; comparatively 
very few are, yet the actual number is large. 
The stories hitherto considered fables of Christna 
and Orpheus charming the wild beasts, thus re- 
ceives its corroboration in India, that land of won- 
ders and beauty. 
IS THE ZOO A PLACE OF 
CRUELTY. 
That learned Zoologist, Monsieur Pierre 
Amedie Pichot, writes from Paris, Januarv 27th, 
1918:— 
"I agree completely with Dr. Chalmers- 
Mitchell and with you in this that the attacks 
which represent the Zoological Gardens as 
places of cruelty upon caged wild animals are 
rubbish, literary rubbish, but they are some- 
thing worse, for they represent facts under 
false colours and contribute to the perversion 
of the public mind. Since the time when upon 
humanitarian pretences cock-fighting, bull 
and bear baiting, and other rough sports of 
our ancestors have fallen out of fashion, I 
beg to know how far human beings have be- 
come less cruel and good-natured. Assuredlv 
the outrageous dealings of the German" Ar- 
mies at the present day go far to prove the 
utter inefficiency of the so-called humanitarian 
speculations ! 
"John Harris, the Cornish cocker, in his 
correspondence which was published after 
his death in 1910, remarks: — 'All Nature's 
