ehensions were increased by the appearance of another tiger;
however, I kept myself so calm, that none of the gentlemen had any
suspicion of what was going on in my mind. Shot followed shot; the
elephants defended their trunks with great dexterity by throwing them
up or drawing them in. After a sharp contest of half an hour, we were
the victors, and the dead animals were triumphantly stripped of their
beautiful skins. The gentlemen politely offered me one of them as a
present; but I declined accepting it, as I could not postpone my journey
sufficiently long for it to be dried.

[Madame Pfeiffer had a courage and presence of mind in
dangerous and difficult situations which often served her in
good stead. Certainly it needed no slight courage to undertake
the adventure described in our next selection, a journey among
the cannibal Battakers of Sumatra. In 1835 two American
missionaries had been killed and eaten by them, and such a
journey without a military escort seemed foolhardy. But she
persisted, and reached a village on the borders of the Battaker
territory July 19, 1852. Here she sent for the regents of the
neighboring villages.]

In the evening we sat in solemn conclave surrounded by regents, and by a
great crowd of the people, for it had been noised abroad far and wide
that here was a white woman who was about to venture into the dreaded
country of the wild Battakers. Regents and people all concurred in
advising me to renounce so perilous a project; but I had tolerably made
up my mind on this point, and I only wanted to be satisfied as to one
thing,--namely, whether it was true, as many travellers asserted, that
the Battakers did not put their victims out of their pain at once, but
tied them living to stakes, and, cutting pieces off them, consumed them
by degrees with tobacco and salt.

The idea of this slow torture did a little frighten me; but my bearers
assured me, with one accord, that this was only done to those who were
regarded as criminals of a deep dye, and who had been on that account
condemned to death. Prisoners of war are tied to a tree and beheaded at
once; but the blood is carefully preserved for drinking, and sometimes
made into a kind of pudding with boiled rice. The body is then
distributed; the ears, the nose, and the soles of the feet are the
exclusive property of the rajah, who has besides a claim on other
portions. The palms of the hands, th