HIS REVERENCE THE TIGER.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 257, 3 November 1906, Page 10

HIS REVERENCE THE TIGER.

MOST HINDI'S RECATin BEAST AS A SORT OF DEITY.

Ono of the peculiarities of tbe East Indian temperament most difficult fnr the Westerner to comprehend is their veneration for certain animals', often extended to those the most dangerous. Thut. Ernest Ingersoll asnres in liis "Life of Mammals," that most nf the Hindus and Malays meekly accept the tiger as an evil to he endured, and in this mood have lifted it, with superstitious terror and reverence, into a sort of malignant deity, which must and may be paelflen , . You can he shown to-day forest shrines :ind saintly tomhg where the tiger comes nightly to keep pious guard, and yon may hear in any Hiudu village of jogis to whom the cruel beasts are as lapdogs. Ono of tbe difficulties which British officers have encountered In certain parts of India, in their attempts lo kill off tbe cattle-lifting or mau-eating tigers of some dangerously infested neigh bonrhood. or to have sport with them, is the opposition of the people to their destruction. Mr Ingersoll quotes a comical illustration of this from one of the earlier sportsmen-writers as follows, the scene of the incident being not far from Bombay:—

I "While sitting at breakfast we were alarmed by hearing cries of distress proceeding from the jugheer&ar's hut, and on running to ascertain the cause we found old Kamah in a furious state of excitoment, his left hand firmly fixed in the woolly pate of the hopeful scion of the house, and belabouring him stoutly with a stout bamboo. We inquired what crime young Moldeen had been guilty of to bring upon him such a storm of parental indignation, and learned to our astonishment that it was all owing to his having killed a tiger. One of his father's tame buffalos haviug been killed by a tiger on the previous day, the young savage had watched for him during the night, and shot him from a tree when he returned to feed upon the carcase. This most people would have considered a very gallant and meritorious exploit on the part of a lad of ID, but the old forester was of a different opinion.

" 'It was all very well,' he said, 'for us who lived in the open country to wage war with tigers, but with them, who lived on sociable terms with them in the jungle, lhe case was different. I have no quarrel with tigers. I never injured one of them; they never injured mc; and while there was peace between us I wejjt About among them without fear of danger. But now that this young rascaJ has picked a quarrel, and commenced hostilities, there is tio saying where the tiling will end!' "