116 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
the throat of its victim, almost immediately despatch- 
ed it, the helpless reptile appearing not to offer the 
slightest resistance. 
Finding that it had so easily vanquished its weakest 
enemy, the leopard, excited by the taste of blood, hav- 
ing been kept without food for the three previous days, 
sprang upon its surviving foe, but with a very different 
result. The alligator, suddenly shifting its head, the 
brindled champion missed its spring ; when the roused 
foe meeting it as it turned, made a sudden snap at its 
head, which it took entire within its capacious jaws, 
and crushed so severely that, when released, the 
leopard rolled over and died after a few struggles. 
The victor was now attacked by a man armed with a 
long spear, with which he despatched it after a feeble 
resistance. Thus ended this barbarous pastime. 
Upon another occasion I witnessed at one of these 
sanguinary exhibitions, a contest between a buffalo 
and a tiger. The buffalo was extremely fierce, and 
one of the largest of its kind I had ever seen. It 
commenced the attack by rushing towards its ad- 
versary, which retreated to a corner of the arena, 
where, finding no escape, it sprang upon the buffalo’s 
neck, fixing its claws in the animal’s shoulder, and 
lacerating it in a frightful manner. It was, however, 
almost instantly flung upon the earth with a violence 
that completely stunned it, when there appeared a 
ghastly wound in the belly, inflicted by its anta- 
gonist’s horn, from which the bowels protruded. 
The conqueror now began to gore and trample upon 
its prostrate enemy, which it soon despatched, and 
then galloped round the enclosure, streaming with 
