58 
HAMLYN'S MENAGERIE MAGAZINE. 
LETTER FROM THE 
Royal Zoological Society, 
(copy.; 
An vers, 
16th December, 1918. 
Dear Sir, 
I 'm in receipt of your esteemed favour of the 
7th inst. and beg to thank you very much for 
your kind wishes. 
Y'll easily understand our gardens suffered 
very much from the war : — 2 hippos — 2 gir- 
affes — 4 zebras — a few antelopes — monkeys and 
kangaroos excepted, we lost all our fourfooted ani- 
mals and have only kept a small collection of 
large and small birds. 
The number 1 of our subscribers is fallen from 
9500 to 4500 the dailv tickets were only a few 
(about L. 490/0/0 a year instead of L. 1200010/0) 
and all our expenses were nearly the same as in 
usual circumstances. To be short, the war costs 
us, nearly L.60000/O/0, plus the loss of our col- 
lections. 
Later on, when the food of the animals will 
not be as scarce and as dear as it is at present, 
I '11 write you again as well as to the other English 
dealers and Zoos and I dare hope they'll help us 
in the reconstitution of our collection. 
Please take us on the list of the sub- 
scriber of your "Magazine" : we will send you the 
amount as soon as postorders can be sent. 
Truly yours, 
The Director, 
M. LHOEST. 
-@>- 
AN INDIAN EXPERIMENT: SUB- 
DUING BENGAL TIGER. 
In the world of animal life, there is no beast 
more ferocious than a Royal Bengal Tiger, and 
I'm 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 of 
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 1 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 gate of the pagoda, saw T the situation and 
understood it at a glance. Chanting a mantrom 
he went straight to the beast which, with flaming 
eyes and foaming mouth, crouched near a tree 
ready for a new victim. When at about ten feet 
from the tigress, without interrupting his modu- 
lated prayer, the words of which no layman com- 
prehends, he began a regular process of mes- 
merisation — 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 of 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 houses, the beast made a 
tremendous 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 blood-shot 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 
growns 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 gently 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 are 
merely a fake to> incite wonder and terror on the 
spectators, do as much ? Of course, every Adept 
is not endowed with such power; comparativelv 
very few are; yet the actual number is large. The 
stories hitherto considered fables of Christna and 
Orpheus charming the wild beasts thus receives 
its corroboration in India, that land of wonders 
and beauty. 
