So 
A TIGER FIGHT. 
which is too narrow for the tiger to turn in. As the fire 
begins to singe his whiskers he gradually backs out. The 
man as soon as he has opened the door, commences returning 
towards the crowd, at the same slow pace and the slower he 
returns the more applause he gains. The tiger having backed 
out of his burning prison is rather astonished at finding him- 
self surrounded by hundreds of people each pointing a spear 
at him. If he is a bold tiger he canters round the circle 
almost touching the spears ; finding no opening he returns to 
the centre, fixes his eye on one spot and with a loud roar 
dashes straight at it. He is received on the spears, and 
though he crushes many as if they were mere reeds, in half a 
minute he falls dead, pierced with a hundred wounds. In 
some instances however, the roar and the charge is too 
much for the Javanese and they give way. The sport then 
becomes rather dangerous to the lookers on,* 
On the second of August, I drove to Djokjakarta, forty- 
nine miles from Solo, visiting the Temples of Prambanan on 
the way. The first I came to was one of the Thousand 
Temples, a mass of large ruins surrounded by an infinite 
number of smaller ones. The four entrance gates are each 
guarded by two large figures, beautifully carved out of one 
solid piece of stone ; further on, I came upon two very fine 
^ Le Conite De Beauvoir " Voyage Autour du Monde," gives a 
description of the tigers which are kept for these fights. After having 
been caught they are shut up for fifteen days and fed on the carcases 
of dogs, sheep, and ofFal of all kinds. The stench from this is perfectly 
unbearable. They seem to lose, by this treatment, nearly all their 
courage, and few of them show any severe fighting. 
Mr. Beete Jukes, the naturalist to the surveying vessel " Fly," 
Captain Blackwood, Vk'itnessed one of these tiger fights with a buffalo. 
The tiger appeared very mangy and half starved and was soon put 
hoys de combat. 
