ime, with, 'Master, master! people sent
for master's dogs--tiger in the town!' Now, my dogs chanced to be some
very degenerate specimens of a fine species, called the _Poligar_ dog,
which I should designate as a sort of wiry-haired grayhound, without
scent. I kept them to hunt jackals; but tigers are very different
things: by the way, there are no real tigers in Ceylon; but leopards and
panthers are always called so, and by ourselves as well as by the
natives. This turned out to be a panther. My gun chanced not to be put
together; and while my servant was doing it, the collector, and two
medical men, who had recently arrived, came to my door, the former armed
with a fowling-piece, and the latter with remarkably blunt hog-spears.
They insisted upon setting off without waiting for my gun, a proceeding
not much to my taste. The tiger (I must continue to call him so) had
taken refuge in a hut, the roof of which, as those of Ceylon huts in
general, spread to the ground like an umbrella; the only aperture into
it was a small door, about four feet high. The collector wanted to get
the tiger out at once. I begged to wait for my gun; but no--the
fowling-piece (loaded with ball, of course) and the two hog-spears were
quite enough. I got a hedge-stake, and awaited my fate, from very shame.
At this moment, to my great delight, there arrived from the fort an
English officer, two artillery-men, and a Malay captain; and a pretty
figure we should have cut without them, as the event will show. I was
now quite ready to attack, and my gun came a minute afterward. The whole
scene which follows took place within an enclosure, about twenty feet
square, formed, on three sides, by a strong fence of palmyra leaves, and
on the fourth by the hut. At the door of this the two artillery-men
planted themselves; and the Malay captain got on the top, to frighten
the tiger out, by worrying it--an easy operation, as the huts there are
covered with cocoa-nut leaves. One of the artillery-men wanted to go in
to the tiger, but we would not suffer it. At last the beast sprang; this
man received him on his bayonet, which he thrust apparently down his
throat, firing his piece at the same moment. The bayonet broke off
short, leaving less than three inches on the musket; the rest remained
in the animal, but was invisible to us: the shot probably went through
his cheek, for it certainly did not seriously injure him, as he
instantly rose upon his legs, with a loud ro