148 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
laam to the Rajah, and retired amid the loud accla- 
mations of the spectators. 
His Highness informed us that this man had killed 
several tigers in a similar manner; and that, although 
upon one or two occasions he had been severely- 
scratched, he had never been seriously wounded. The 
Coorgs, moreover, are known often to attack this ter- 
rible animal in the jungles with their heavy, sharp 
knives, and with almost unfailing success. Upon the 
present occasion, nothing could exceed the cool, cau- 
tious, and calculating precision with which the reso- 
lute Hindoo went through his dangerous performance. 
In order to vary the sports, several men were intro- 
duced into the arena, armed with sticks in the form of 
a crescent, tapering towards one end like a Scotch 
mull, and loaded at the other with iron. They are 
from twenty-six to thirty inches long at the largest 
extremity, and about as thick as a child’s wrist. By 
persons accustomed to the use of this instrument it 
is thrown with astonishing dexterity, as was proved 
upon the present occasion. A frame, nearly two feet 
square, containing a flat surface of clay, four inches 
thick, was placed at a distance of forty-five yards from 
the spot where the man stood who was to throw. In 
the centre of this frame was stuck a circular piece of 
iron, about the size of a cheese-plate. The first who 
threw the stick was a short Hindoo, with a robust, 
muscular frame, of more strength than symmetry. 
Fixing his eye intently upon the object which it was 
his aim to strike, his left foot being forward and his 
body slightly curved, with a rapid evolution of the arm 
he discharged the loaded wood. It whizzed through the 
