ANIMAL HUNTER DEFIES DEATH IN PRIMEVAL JUNGLE

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6867, 23 March 1929, Page 20 (Supplement)

ANIMAL HUNTER DEFIES DEATH IN PRIMEVAL JUNGLE

ROMINENT on the scroll of men engaged in dangerous occupations is the name of George M. Bistany, “shopper” for the zoological gardens of the United siaces, who recently returned from one of his death-defying expeditions. Hobnobbing with the savage tribes of desert Arabs; coaxing their “gods” to give him permission to bag such rara avis as the shoebill bird, the Nubian wild ass and the giant eland; wheedling temple priests in Welvredem, Java, into giving him a 32-year-old lizard and an ancient sacred crocodile; trapping ferocious orang-out-angs and man-eating lions in Siam and Africa, are only a few of the exploits on which he has just turned his back.

This last trip resulted in a shipload of jungle immigrants being landed at Hoboken from the s.s. City of Florence a week after his arrival. They have taken up permanent residence at the Bronx and Philadelphia Zoos. As souvenirs of encounters with the sullen-eyed, bored-looking specimens who indifferently regard visitors from behind nets and bars in various zoological gardens, the intrepid Bistany carries more than thirty vicious scars. Because he is an AmericanEgyptian, Mr. Bistany explained at the begining of an interview with the San Francisco “Chronicle,” he can speak the various Arabian dialects and thus manages to mingle with the savage tribes of the Soudan swamps. “The interior of the Soudan is very hard on the white man,” he said. “White English officials stay there only live months at a time, and are almost invariably wracked with fever before their time is up. A man must be very strong physically and mentally to stand that climate and the absence of civilised companionship. “Yes,” he nodded gravely, "I went after the white rhinoceros. That is where you find the finest specimens. The American Zoological Society was anxious to obtain one. However, the British Government refused the necessary permit. We had quite a battle over it. As I managed to obtain several specimens which the British do not have in their own zoological gardens, I believe that they will give me the requested permit when I return next year. “One of these very rare specimens which I managed to secure, and which the British Government lacks in its collection, is the Nubian wild ass. You can’t catch this animal with bullets, and unless you speak the local Arabian dialect and understand their customs you don’t stand a chance of penetrating the interior. “This is the district where the savage Soudanese tribe named the Shurx lives, its members being distinguished by a certain insigne which is cut in their faces when they are infants. The names of their gods sound something like dieck-dieck and yum-yum, which are represented by two chiefs. “They are very ignorant, and' all efforts to civilise them are a waste of time and brains. I met a Mr. Oyler there who came from Cambridge, Mass., twenty-six years ago. He still hopes to wean them away from the worship of idols and coax them to substitute regular clothes for the few beads and forehead horns which now constitute their entire costume. “Like all savages, what they lack in intelligence they make up in cunning. Unless a hunter placates their gods with plenty of sugar, salt and tobacco, he will find his way very effectively blocked.” Encounter with Mamba “The most vicious and the one whose bit almost invariably causes death is the African mamba. This is one of the worst reptiles on earth. It travels on its tail, its body rearing three feet in the air, its small jaws wide open. Most reptiles will avoid

human beings, but the mamba is noted for following a man on horseback for miles. It will sneak up on him from behind, bite the horse and when its rider falls will attack him fearlessly. “My first acquaintance with a mamba was made when a native brought me one in a skin bag. I asked him, as I proceeded to open the bag, what sore of a specimen he had bi’ought me. He said: ‘Usula.’ This is the name given by natives to all snakes. ‘How does she travel?’ I asked him. ‘On her tail,’ he grinned. I just had time to throw her into a tin box and shut down the lid before 1 she struck; I could hear the ugly flat head strike against the sides. “Having heard a lot about this vicious reptile, I opened the box after hearing no sound for a long time. She was lying dead on the bottom. In striking her head against the side of the box she had cut her mouth and canker had promptly developed; in other words, she had poisoned herself. “Pythons are harmless only when asleep. When they are hungry, they are dangerous. In order to capture them, we feed them and wait until they pass out, and when they wake up they find themselves in a temporary cage. It takes twenty men to handle them, they are so heavy and cumbersome. “The African buffalo is smart and powerful. He will tree you for a day and will do everything on earth to bring you down on the ground. He is very foxy. If you shoot him and only wound him, he will lie down on the ground and pretend to be dead. Then when you approach him he will jump on you. His hide is so tough that urn less you succeed in hitting him with a .46-calibre bullet on a certain spot

Graphic Story of Zoo “Shopper’s” Adventures in Siam and Africa . ~ Conflict Against Fever and Ferocity . . . Baboon Breaks Loose on Ship ... Priests Surrender Sacred Crocodile

just baek of the ears you cannot kill him. “Monkeys in the jungle are very wild. We catch them by brewing a liquid from seeds which make a very strong, sweet concoction. The cleverest monkey will fall for this trick. The liquor is placed in a big clay jar and placed in the bush. After they have had two or three drinks from this they get dizzy, and after swaying around for a while fall asleep. When they awake they find themselves locked up. “When you come across a lion who is not hungry there is nothing to be

afraid of. He will look you up and down and yawn and trot on. He is pretty clever when he sees a caravan of forty persons; he knows enough to realise he doesn’t stand a show of putting up a fight. It’s a different matter if he is hungry and encounters a lone native in the bush. The lion

I eats only the arms or legs of a human being and leaves the head and torso behind.” The most exciting tussle Mr. Bistany has ever had with his “purchases” was during a severe storm in midocean, aboard a Blue Funnel liner en route from Egypt. “I had a consignment on the shelter deck, boxed in securely, we believed, in ironwood cases. We had one wild hyena, fourteen baboons and one oyrx, a species of big antelope. The captain was steering the ship against the gale and doing everything possible to weather the storm. In spite of this, terrific waves crashed over the vessel. The cases containing the hyena, one baboon and the oyrx were smashed to pieces. “The sailors took to the rigging. I struck the baboon senseless with an iron bar and then watched to see where the hyena went. It made a straight line for one of the sailor’s sleeping rooms. As soon as it got inside I closed the door. “The captain came to me and said: ‘l’ve stopped the ship. I can do no more. And a terrible thing lias happened. One of our sailors threw himself overboard.’ “I asked the captain where the sailor’s sleeping quarters were. He told me that they had been in the room where I had shut up the hyena. ‘Come on, let’s see,’ I said to him. ‘Maybe that fellow is still aboard.’ “We opened the door cautiously. The hyena was staring up toward the ceiling. I grabbed his tail. He tried to bite at me, but couldn’t turn around. Glancing toward the point on which his eyes had been focussed, I saw a sailor crouched on a narrow shelf, half dead from fright. “But in the battle aboard ship, didn’t you get wounded at all?” the interviewer asked. Mangled by Tiger “Oh, yes,” he replied casually. "An .antelope managed to butt its horns two inches deep into my stomach. It was a nasty wound . . . But about the cameramen and the Bengal tiger . . . I had a tiger, a very ferocious animal, on that trip. So that the photographer could get a good picture of it, I brought it out on a double iron chain. A mother and baby who came out of a house nearby attracted its attention, especially the baby. I yelled to the mother to take it out of the way. She did, but it wasn’t until the tiger had rather badly mangled my shoulder that I managed to get it back into the cage. “I am very strong; that is why I have always succeeded in getting off so easily.” Before closing the interview Mr. Bistany was asked what tactics he pursued in persuading the temple priests to let him have the sacred lizard and the sacred crocodile which were reported as part of his last consignment. “I explained to them that it would do the world a great deal of good if those sacred reptiles were released to me for scientific purposes. I expatiated on the great honour this recognition of the Western World was to his country, explaining that I had come more than 75,000 miles to procure them for America. “Though reluctant to part with them, they were finally convinced by my missionary arguments—plus a valuable gift I presented to the nephew of one of them —and I embarked with the two sacred reptiles as well as a sacred white monkey.” Many, many thrilling tales he has, but he believes, with true Arabian fatalism:

“What’s written is written! What will be, will be!” And next year, after some of the malaria has been cleaned out of his system, he will start off on another expedition into the feveranfested swamps of the jungle in search of more rare beasts.