forward, and stopped directly
under the hanging joints.

Ossaroo had purposely raised the meat above its former elevation, and
the lowest ends of the joints were full twelve feet from the ground.
Although the tiger can bound to a very great distance in a horizontal
direction, he is not so well fitted for springing vertically upwards,
and therefore the tempting morsels were just beyond his reach. He
seemed to be somewhat nonplussed at this--for upon his last visit he had
found things rather different--but after regarding the joints for a
moment or two, and uttering a loud snuff of discontent, he flattened his
paws against the ground, and sprang high into air.

The attempt was a failure. He came back to the earth without having
touched the meat, and expressed his dissatisfaction by an angry growl.

In another moment, he made a second spring upwards. This time, he
struck one of the quarters with his paw, and sent it swinging backwards
and forwards, though it had been secured too well to the branch to be in
any danger of falling.

All at once, the attention of the great brute became directed to a
circumstance, which seemed to puzzle him not a little. He noticed that
there was something adhering to his paws. He raised one of them from
the ground, and saw that two or three leaves were sticking to it. What
could be the matter with the leaves, to cling to his soles in that
manner? They appeared to be wet, but what of that? He had never known
wet leaves stick to his feet any more than dry ones. Perhaps it was
this had hindered him from springing up as high as he had intended? At
all events, he did not feel quite comfortable, and he should have the
leaves off before he attempted to leap again. He gave his paw a slight
shake, but the leaves would not go. He shook it more violently, still
the leaves adhered! He could not make it out. There was some gummy
substance upon them, such as he had never met with before in all his
travels. He had rambled over many a bed of fig-leaves in his day, but
had never set foot upon such sticky leaves as these.

Another hard shake of the paw produced no better effect. Still stuck
fast the leaves, as if they had been pitch plasters; one covering the
whole surface of his foot, and others adhering to its edges. Several
had even fastened themselves on his ankles. What the deuce did it all
mean?

As shaking the paw was of no use, he next attempted to get rid of them
by the only o