CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 6, CxiRNIVORA. 
263 
ing the ring unbroken, and thus driving before them the wild animals within the circle ; but they 
are forbidden to kill or wound any of them, however ferocious they may be. They encamp every 
night, when all the martial manoauvres are punctually executed. The march lasts many weeks ; 
the space lessens ; and the creatures, finding themselves closely pressed, flee to the mountains 
and forests, whence they are soon dislodged by the hunters opening their dens and kennels Avith 
spades and mattocks, and even searching them out with ferrets. 
As the narrowed ring brings the bewildered animals together, the strong, growing furious, 
devour the weak, and the air is rent with horrid bowlings, yells, and screams of ferocity or agony. 
The soldiers are scarce able to drive the beasts forward by incessant shouts. At length, when 
they are pent into so small a space that they ca:i all be seen, the drums, cymbals, and other music 
set \ip a deafening clangor. This, joined to the fierce cries of the hunters and soldiers, so terrifies 
and astonishes the beasts, that they lose all their ferocity ; lions and tigers, bears, wolves, and 
wild boars, crouch subdued, and endeavor to skulk one behind the other. 
The emperor, accompanied by his sons and cliief officers, first enters the circle, holding his 
drawn saber and bow and arrows, and begins the terrific slaughter by striking the most savage of 
the animals. Many of these, at their last extremity, on being wounded, resume their ferocity, and 
struggle hard for their lives. The sovereign now retires to an eminence, where a throne has been 
raised, whence he views the fight, from which no one shrinks, however great the peril. When 
the princes and nobles have sufficiently displayed their prowess, the youths continue the carnage. 
I" What yet remain 
Alive, with vain assault, contend to break 
Th' impenetrable line. Others? vyhom fear 
Unnerves, with self-preserving wiles, beneath 
The bodies of the slain for shelter creep. * * * 
When, lo ! the bright sultanas of the court !— 
Suppliant they bend, and humbly sue to save 
The vanquish'd host. * * * 
At beauty's high behest, the khan commands, — 
Opening to right and left, the well-train' d troops 
Leave a large void : — impetuous forth the foe 
Fly frantic, on the wings of fear upborne." 
The tiger has often been represented as untamable, but this is now known to be a mistake, 
ot only is it capable of being tamed, but instances have happened in which it has shown strong- 
attachment to its keepers. A young tigress, brought to London and placed in the Tower 
Menagerie, had been, during her passage from Calcutta, allowed to range about the vessel unre- 
strained, and had become perfectly familiar with the sailors, showing not the slightest symptom 
of ferocity. On her arrival in the Thames the irritation produced by the sight of strangers 
instantly changed her temper, rendering her irascible and dangerous. So sulky and savage was 
she, that Mr. Cops, who then kept the lions in the Tower, could hardly be prevailed on by her 
former keeper, who caiue to see her, to allow him to enter her den; but as soon as the tigress 
recognized her old friend, she fawned on him, licked him, caressed him, and manifested the most 
extravagant signs of pleasure ; and when at last he left her, she cried and whined for the remain- 
der of the day. The tame tigers of the mendicant priests, or fakirs, of Hindostan are well known. 
Bat while there can be no doubt of the tamable qualities of the tiger, and indeed of all the great 
cats, they are not to be incautiously trusted. The natural disposition is always ready to break 
out ; and the mildest of them, though 
"Ne'er so tame, so cherish'd, and lock'd up, 
Will have a wild trick of his ancestors." 
It is a curious fact that the lion and tigress, in confinement, will breed together : this has- 
twice happened in England. The young ones appeared more like tigers than lions. In both cases- 
they died young. The fundamental character of man is well illustrated in the emblems he uses- 
to express his will. 
In the East the tiger is the favorite type of royalty, and royalty is the representative ©f Gad- 
on earth. In old Rome the eagle was placed upon the national banners.; in modern. Chris- 
