MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 



A TIGER HUNT IN JAVA, 



( Extracted from the !l Ceylon Observer'') 



"' \HE slaughter which takes place among the cattle of Java, 

 Sumatra and Bali, through tigers, panthers and wild 

 dogs, is greater than is supposed. In remote, thinly 

 populated districts, children ( not small ones ) and even 

 full grown persons are killed by the royal tiger, and 

 now and then similar cases occur in more inhabited 

 places. Even here, in the neighbourhood of Sinagar (below Soeka- 

 boemi, Preanger), a thickly populated and almost entirely cleared 

 district, I have had the sad experience that, in a short time, one 

 can lose much cattle, horses and sheep through wild beasts. 



In the first four years of my residence here, before I had become 

 acquainted with the use of tiger poisons, I lost in this manner 14 

 horses and karbouws* Since then also I have not been exempt ; 

 but by employing the poison which I am about to describe the loss 

 of cattle has gradually decreased. 



The poison which was employed by me is a yellowish brown 

 powder, obtained from the bark of a climbing plant called wali 

 hambing ) found in the low marshy regions along the coasts of Java 

 ( among others near Tangerang, in the Bantam province and near 

 Wijnkoopsbaai ). 



In Filet's Planthundig Woordenboek voor JSfederlandscli Indie 

 ( Leyden, Gualth Kolff, 1876 ) the plant is referred to under No. 

 8.705 : — " Wali hambing j. Sarcolobus sjpanogliei miq. Nat. ord. of 

 the Asdepiadece ; loc. Java ; creeper. This plant, with others of 

 the same family, is employed to intoxicate boars, tigers and other 



* Buffaloes. 



