FIGHT BETWEEN A COORG AND A TIGER. 145 
peated, and the goat borne off in triumph, crowned 
with a garland, by its keeper. 
The next scene was of a far more awful character. 
A man entered the arena, armed only with a Coorg 
knife, and clothed in short trousers, which barely 
covered his hips, and extended halfway down the 
thighs. The instrument, which he wielded in his right 
hand, was a heavy blade, something like the coulter 
of a plough, about two feet long, and full three inches 
wide, gradually diminishing towards the handle, with 
which it formed a right angle. This knife is used with 
great dexterity by the Coorgs, being swung round in 
the hand before the blow is inflicted, and then brought 
into contact with the object intended to be struck, with 
a force and effect truly astounding. 
The champion who now presented himself before the 
Rajah was about to be opposed to a tiger, which he 
volunteered to encounter almost naked, and armed only 
with the weapon I have just described. He was ra- 
ther tall, with a slight figure ; but his chest was 
deep, his arms long and muscular. His legs were 
thin ; yet the action of the muscles was perceptible 
with every movement, whilst the freedom of his gait, 
and the few contortions he performed preparatory to 
the hazardous enterprise in which he was about to: 
engage, showed that he possessed uncommon ac- 
tivity, combined with no ordinary degree of strength. 
The expression of his countenance was absolutely 
sublime when he gave the signal for the tiger to be 
let loose: it was the very concentration of moral 
energy — the index of a high and settled resolution 
His body glistened with the oil which had been rubbed 
o 
