A TIGER AT A WEDDING.

Taranaki Daily News, 29 November 1930, Page 21 (Supplement)

A TIGER AT A WEDDING.

A white man travelling in Malay had an experience the other day which he will not easily forget. It happened that the daughter of the headman of the village where he was staying- was to be / married, and the stranger, whose name was Charles Mayer, Was ■ invited to the ceremony. _ Mr. Mayer-thought doubtfully about it, as he-Was recovering from an illness and not at all in the mood to make a figure at a feasf. In the end he decided to

During the, morning he had a little talk with .the bride, a pretty girl called Timur. ' She told him all' about' the bridegroom, who answered to the queer name of Sony. She was immensely proud of him, and graphically described his skill in spear-thro wing. Words failed her when she tried to describe his beauty. Then she said: “Master,: he moves like a young fish in clear water.” At once the white man had a Vision of the slender, lithe Malay. Timur ran away to see her wedding finery, and the stranger dozed a little under the ■ tree where they had been talking. He was aroused by a tumult round the village well, and, strolling over, discovered a group of Malay boys having a fight and using their knives. One of them had his arm severely cut, and Mr. Mayer sent his servant Ali to bind it up. There was already a pool of blood soaking through th© sand. The white man,/ experienced in jungle dangers, remembered it afterwards and bitterly reproached himself for not taking the elementary precaution of digging up the stained area. The hour of the wedding found the village gorgeous and gay. The headman’s pretty daughter came at the head of the procession from, her father’s house, marvellously clad anfi wearing the jewellery of her kith and kin. Sony was no less gorgeous, also in borrowed plume's,' ' While the elders were feasting, the village children got hold of the tomtoms and drummed to their hearts’ content. As the sun was about to set they were called in to eat. Suddenly the calm of the-jungle was. rent by _ a terrible shriek. Then silence again. The sound had come from the. well.

Sony and the white man were there in a trice—Sony th© first. ..Mr.; Mayer saw two things. He saw Sony’s spear flash like lightning. He saw . a tiger dragging away th© headman’s daughter. Th© spear went home, and . the tiger with a howl of • rage, opened hie great jaws, dropped his . prey, and leaped off into the jungle. Sony swooped on Timur and carried her back to the scene of the feast. She had. fainted.’ No one knew the extent of her injury.'. , The whole village was now in a hubbub. Women were shrieking that the tiger knew their witch doctor was away, and that was why ho had come. Mr. Mayer knew better. He knew the tiger had been attracted by the smell of the blood in the sand by the well where pretty Timur had gone io draw water.- . The.. headman implored .. the great white man to use his white magic and sav© his child. Timur .was. canned up the ladder, to her home, and AH went for his master’s medicine bag. Mr. Mayer soon saw that there .Was hope for Timur, Her shoulder had’ been badly torn by the tiger’s teeth where he had seized liis prey, but the rest of her body was untouched. . While Mr. Mayer washed the deep tear in the flesh with disinfectant (he was conscious of Sony’s dark, trusting eyes watching every movement. The childlike faith went to the man's heart. He was no-doctor,, he Was feeling very weak, and it was a hasty wound to tackle.

While he was trying to find some means of binding the shoulder the white man turned suddenly faint, the first signs of the after-trouble he had expected- The wound taught to be stitched before it. wirs ■ bound up. Suddenly ail idea struck him. He drew the flesh together, and fold. Sony io hold the Wound so. Sony’s deft fingers took as good a hold as a slirgeo-ii’s. . The white mat then gavejiis-phtient a dose of quinine and an opium pill/ tie- spoke io Sony. “Could you hold’the wound so, with the flesh together, until ’ the lamps splutter out and the day dawns?” “Master,” said the bridegroom, “I can hold it Until my linger nails grow and cut into the flesh. Longer would be unwise.”

“What Timur has swallowed will quieten the little devils,? went on Mr. Mayer; “but a big devil would get in at the hole the tiger made. Keep it Closed. Do not stir?”

The white man then staggered-away to his own quarters. He dozed a little at dawn, and Was awakened, by Ali, who was in a fearful state because, aS he said, ‘‘a big devil had seized Sony by the legs, and they were ft no longer his.” The white man hurried off to the headman’s house. He found the faithful Sony Squatting exactly where he had left him. Timur was asleep. The young Malay had taken him literally when he-told him not to move, and his legs had “gone dead.” He made no men-’ tion of the ordeal. When Mr. Mayer told him to let go of his hold on ; the gorl’s shoulder he rolled over like & dog. - The wound was already beginning to heal. It was easy now to bind it Up. As the last" bandage was set-in.place Timur woke. “Timur,” said the white man, “you will live. You are saved, not' by medicine, but by the spear of Sony and by the hands of Sony during; the long night.” The lad etumbled to his stiff legs and fell on his knees by Timur. They looked at each other.’. No words were necessary. Then Sony, staggered up again; and went out to kill the tiger.