A WALK WITH A TIGER.

Otago Witness, Issue 1901, 17 July 1890, Page 35

A WALK WITH A TIGER.

" They tell queer tales of wild beasts making friends with people, don't they 1 " said the junior lieutenant of the — th British Light Infantry, the officers of which were entertaining Dr L , the famous East Indian explorer. " There was a yarn inthe papers today about a native child who was lost lately up yonder in the Neilgherry Mountains, and when the parents hunted it out, they found it lying quite happily with a lot of bear cubs, and tbe old she-bear licking it just as if it had been one of them I "

"Nothing impossible in that!" grunted old Major M . " When we were in South Africa during the Kaffir war, there was a big flood that covered the whole country round us, and I had to go out in a boat to look for an English engineer who was missing. And when we got to the place where his hut had stood, what should we find but him and a big lion sitting cheek-by-jowl on the only spot of high ground that wa3n't covered, jambed together like passengers on an overcrowded train— the man with his arm round the lion's neck."

" And when the man was rescued," put in the lieutenant, imitating exactly the old major's gruff tones, " the lion swam after our boat all tbe way to the camp, and followed him about like a dog from that day forth ; and everywhere that fellow went, the lion was sure to go— like Mary's little lamb, don't you know ? A most affecting story, and perfectly true ; I knew the lion intimately." " Well," said Dr L , laughing, " I can tell you a story which I daresay you'll think even more impossible, and you are welcome to laugh at it as much as you please ; but I can assure you that I was there myself when it happened." " I suppose you all remember what a craze the old Gaekwarof Baroda(who reigned just before this young fellow that's king now) bad for wild beasts of all sorts, and what a splendid menagerie he kept close to his palace. Well, at the time I visited his court, the great attraction of the menagerie was a magnificent tiger from the Terai, one of the finest beasts that I've ever seen.

"This tiger, being such an important gentleman, had a keeper all to himself — an old native hunter, as cool and handy a fellow as I ever knew, and just the man for such a post. But, the very day that I visited the place for the first time, it happened by some mischance — no-one could ever find out how — that the cage of the Terai-Wallah (as the natives called Mr Tiger) hadn't been properly fastened ; and just as the crowd wa3 thickest all round the cage, all on a sudden the grated door was seen to fly open, and out shot the tiger's great body like lightning right into the middle of the throng I " Then there was a stampede, if you like 1 Such a crushing, and fighting, and tumbling, and shrieking I never saw in my life. It's very lucky that the Hindoos don't as a rule wear boots, or half the people would have been trampled to death on the spot; but even as it was a good many of them were badly hurt." " And where were you all the while, then, doctor 1" asked the lieutenant, with a grin.

"Well, I really couldn't tell you just where I was," said Dr L , smiling ; " but I can easily tell you where I was not — anywhere near the tiger 1 " • At this there was a general laugh, for L — was known to be one of the bravest men in all India, and to have killed as many tigers as the best sportsman present. 11 However," he went on, " like many others who are always • yearning to be free,' Mr Tiger didn't seem to know quite what to do with his freedom when he had got it. In fact, he was probably quite as much scared himself «,s any of the people»whora he had frightened, for it was afterwards discovered that, so far as any one could tell, he had hurt no one except the few whom he knocked down with his first rush. And well he might be. Finding himself suddenly in the heart of a big town of which he knew nothing, with hundreds of people running and screaming on all skies of him, the poor beast got quite bewildered, and doubtless wished himsell' safe back in the depths of his own quiet jungle, away from a.ll the fuss and n,?ise. And.

the farther he went the worse it was tot him— houses, and houses, and more houses still, and not a living thing to be seen (for, as you may think, the news of his haying broken loose had cleared all the streets in a trice), till he Was quite tired of it all, and didn't know what to do." "He seems to have given you a very minute account of his own feelings, doctor," said the waggish lieutenant, with a grin; bat this time no one laughed, for the rest were so taken up with the strange tale that they scarcely heard him. "Well," continued .DrL , "there was some one else who was quite as much put out by this business as the tiger himself, and that was his keeper, who knew the king well enough to guess what mercy he had to expect at his hands when the old rasoal should find out that his pet tiger was gone. His first thought was to run away at once, but that would be to leave his wife and children at the mercy of the tyrant, which would be worse still. At last, in sheer desperation, he made up his mind to go out and look for the tiger. "Meanwhile- the poor tiger, being now very tired and very hungry — for by this time he had got into a street full of tailors' shops where he naturally found nothing to temp his appetite — would gladly have fouad his way back to the cage that he had left if he had only had the least idea where it was. He was fast giving way to despair, when who should heave in sight but the keeper, and I don't know which was the more glad of the two— the man to see the tiger or the tiger to see him. "'Bagh Khudawand' (my lord tiger), said the keeper, putting his hands together supplicatingly, as these fellows always do when they address a superior, ' permit your slave to observe that your honourable highness can hardly expect to find very comfortable quarters in this nasty, dirty bazaar, which is full of low people, who don't know how to treat your honour with proper respect, and who ran away screaming at the very sight of you. Your honour had much better come home to your own nice snug cage, and have a good supper. See, here is some meat for you.' "Whether the tiger really understood this address or not (though the Hindoo always vowed that he took in every word of it), he understood tbe mutton bone well enough, and began to crunch it with no small satisfaction. Then the keeper, seeing that *my lord tiger ' showed no sign of meaning mischief, plucked up courage and went right up to him, and then, having unrolled his cotton turban, he fastened one end of it around the beast's neck like a string, and led him away back to his cage again as quietly as a lamb. To that I can testify myself, for I happened to meet the pair of 'em as they came up to the door of the royal menagerie, just as I was leaving the palace after a talk with the old king. " And now, gentlemen, if you don't believe that story, you have nothing to do but to ask the keeper himself about it, for he happens to loe just outside the door, there, among my other servants."