thout them, as the event will show. I
was now quite ready to attack, and my gun came a minute afterwards. The
whole scene which follows took place within an inclosure, 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 at 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 roar, and placed his paws upon
the soldier's breast. At this moment the animal appeared to me to be
about to reach the centre of the man's face; but I had scarcely time to
observe this, when the tiger, stooping his head, seized the soldier's
arm in his mouth, turned him half round, staggering, threw him over on
his back and fell upon him. Our dread now was, that if we fired upon the
tiger we might kill the man. For a moment there was a pause, when his
comrade attacked the beast exactly in the same manner the gallant fellow
himself had done. He struck his bayonet into his head; the tiger rose at
him, he fired, and this time the ball took effect, and in the head. The
animal staggered backwards, and we all poured in our fire; he still
kicked and writhed, when the gentlemen with the hogspears advanced and
fixed him, while some natives finished him by beating him on the head
with hedge stakes. The brave artillery-man was after all but slightly
hurt; he claimed the skin, which was very cheerfully given to him; there
was, however, a cry among the natives, that the head should be cut off;
it was, and in doing so, the knife came directly across the bayonet. The
animal measured scarcely less than four feet from the root of the tail
to the muzzle."

The following practical joke is related in the late Rev. T. Acland's
amusing volume on India:--A party of officers went out from Cuttack to
shoot; their men were beating the jungle, when suddenly all the wild