DUEL BETWEEN A TIGER AND A CORBA.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2558, 1 December 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

DUEL BETWEEN A TIGER AND A CORBA.

Snake hunting in India, says a writer in the iS'ew York Sun, is vmiturc;inmo business. It was not much of a feat to secure the serpents we wanted, and, in the oour.se of a fortnight we wore ready to pull up snakes. Then oenured an incident which almost made an old man of me in

an hour. The hut I occupied had been used as a storehouse. On each side of the single doorway was u stout feuce made of poles running out about twentytivo feet, thus making a lane or passage about three feet wide. When the house was filled with grain a sentinel watched

at tho mouth of this lane. Only one person could go aud come at a time, and was thus under supervision. They had slung a hammock for me so that I faced tho door and looked down this lane when lyiug on my right side. Each night a lire was built at the mouth of the lane,

and there were so many other fire-

scattered about that we felt safe from tigers or serpauts. On this night I turned in about 10 o'clock. Half au hour later it begun to rain heavily, and, in a few minutes, all the fires were out. The rain continued until aftur midnight, and then it cleared up, aud the moon rose. I had slept for an hour and woke just as the light of tho moon came over the junele. It shouo full up the lane, and the first thing my ojes rested upon was a laruo corba milking its way towards me. Wo had seen none of them in our two weeks' stay, but I knew tho species the instant I caught his motion. My two guns were in tho hut. To spring out of tho hammock aud seize one of them and fire at the serpent was the work of ten seconds.

That was my programme, but as I made the first movement I found myself fast. I had not removed my trowsers, and the buckle had workod itself down among the fibres and become fast.

I had only time for the one effort. To got clear I must dump myself out on my knei'S, and the serpent was too near for that. The cobra might flee in affright, but he was more likely to spring upon me. And suppose there was a pair of them, and that the other had already entered the hut? In ten seconds after tJiis thought came to me I was in a cold sweat, and so weak that I could not have stood on my feet. The slight movement I had made alarmed the cobra, and he coiled himself and waited fully two minutes before coining on again. I ought to move and also use my voice, but for the life of me I could neither raise a linger nor utter a sound. Yon may smile attlie idea of a mat) being so unnerved, but I was completely helpless. I had heed every sort of wild animal, and I had taken some risks to make men's hearts stand still, but this was a cobra—the most dreaded of all the serpent race in India. Let his fangs but touch my flesh and I was a dead man. I had seen his victims by the dozen, and I knew something of the agonies they suffered before death came as a merciful relief.

Tho serpent might have been ten minutes crawling the fifteen feet which brought him into the hut. As soon as he was over the threshold he was in the darkness, and I could no longer see him. I heard him crawling about over the dried grass on the floor, however, and knew that it was only a question of minutes when he would seek a closer acquaintance with me. Ho might not strike mu at once. Tho cobra never strikes unless cornered. He never strikes a sleeper. My hammock was swung about three feet from the ground. After a few minutes I heard the snake crawling towards me, anil I prepared for the worst. When I turned in it was very close and oppressive. I had, therefore, thrown the blankets out of the hammock. The cold rain had chilled the snike, and he was looking for warmth. The blankets were on the ground, and this fact prevented him from coming into the hammock. I

could not see him, but I could hear and scent him as he twisted about anil finally curled (io'.vn. When lie had become quiet I felt that [ had a chance for my life. I would wait until lie was asleep and then make a sudden spring and a rush. If I waited until daylight or aroused the natives the cobra would certainly bite me,

I was cooler now, and I waited from twenty to twenty-five minutes before moving. I waa just planning to dump myself out of the hammock when the moonlight revealed a new and unexpected danger. Standing at the mouth of the lane and looking straight in upon me was a tiger. That' he had entered the village iu .search of prey I knew by his demeanour. That he was an old tiger and a man-eater oue r.onld see by his lordly air. Instead of coming in from the jungle hu had come across the opeu and cultivated land, and my hut was first in his path. I did not believe he would enter the hut. The lane would look like a trap to him, and he would fight shy. After looking at me for perhaps two minutes, the tiger moved out of sight, and presently I heard him steal around the hut to look for an opeuing. There was no other, and he returned and surveyed me again. With my eyes wide open, I did not move a finger, and the animal no doubt believed me asleep. He probably saw the blankets on the ground, but I don't think he suspected the presence of the serpent.

When the tiger finally entered the opening and began to approach mo I gave myself up for lost. With this feeling came that of coolness, and I was never so clear-headed iu my life. For » moment I forgot tho snake, but presently, as the tiger was within ten feet of the doorway, I heard the sm-pent utter a low hiss and move about. The tisyer had eves and ears only for 1110. He skulked over the ground exactly as you havo seen a cat, making no more noise than a mouse. When he reached the doorway and etood with his fore-paws on tho threshold my heart stopped beating. His next move would be a spring, aua he would find me helpless.

There was an interval of porhapa thirty seconds. My sight went awagr from me. I was half dead with terror. I faintly remember hearing a hiss and a snarl, and all at once I rose. It was to see the cobra and tho tiger rolling over and over in the lane, and raising such a row that the whole village was around in a moment. I saw all tho fight but remember very little. Serpent and tiger rolled away down the lane and then back again, the one hissing like a steam engine and the other roaring and growling. In ten minutes it was over, and both were dead, and then I fainted away and was unconscious. The cobra had bitten the tiger in more than,fifty places, and the tiger had used his tooth and claws to tear his enemy.