Believe me, the much-praised lambs of humility would not bear themselves so meekly if they but possessed tigers' claws.--_Heinrich Heine._
Indica tigris agit rabida cum tigride pacem / Perpetuam: s?vis inter se convenit ursis. / Ast homini ferrum letale incude nefanda / Produxisse parum est=--The Indian tigers live in perpetual peace with each rabid tigress; savage bears agree among themselves, but man without remorse beats out the deadly sword on the accursed anvil.
Gefahrlich ist's, den Leu zu wecken, / Verderblich ist des Tigers Zahn; / Jedoch der schrecklichste der Schrecken, / Das ist der Mensch in seinem Wahn=--Dangerous it is to rouse the lion, fatal is the tiger's tooth, but the most frightful of terrors is man in his self-delusion.
"What shall we do?" said Twoflower. "Panic?" said Rincewind hopefully. He always held that panic was the best means of survival; back in the olden days, his theory went, people faced with hungry sabretoothed tigers could be divided very simply into those who panicked and those who stood there saying "What a magnificent brute!" and "Here, pussy." -- Terry Pratchett, "The Light Fantastic"
"Upon my word," said Dantes, "you make me shudder. Is the world filled with tigers and crocodiles?"
Then thus he pray'd, and fix'd on heav'n his eyes: "Hear thou, great Mother of the deities. With turrets crown'd! (on Ida's holy hill Fierce tigers, rein'd and curb'd, obey thy will.) Firm thy own omens; lead us on to fight; And let thy Phrygians conquer in thy right."
When this legion had been reduced to a handful, when nothing was left of their flag but a rag, when their guns, the bullets all gone, were no longer anything but clubs, when the heap of corpses was larger than the group of survivors, there reigned among the conquerors, around those men dying so sublimely, a sort of sacred terror, and the English artillery, taking breath, became silent. This furnished a sort of respite. These combatants had around them something in the nature of a swarm of spectres, silhouettes of men on horseback, the black profiles of cannon, the white sky viewed through wheels and gun-carriages, the colossal death's-head, which the heroes saw constantly through the smoke, in the depths of the battle, advanced upon them and gazed at them. Through the shades of twilight they could hear the pieces being loaded; the matches all lighted, like the eyes of tigers at night, formed a circle round their heads; all the lintstocks of the English batteries approached the cannons, and then, with emotion, holding the supreme moment suspended above these men, an English general, Colville according to some, Maitland according to others, shouted to them, "Surrender, brave Frenchmen!" Cambronne replied, "-----."
First: I have personally known three instances where a whale, after receiving a harpoon, has effected a complete escape; and, after an interval (in one instance of three years), has been again struck by the same hand, and slain; when the two irons, both marked by the same private cypher, have been taken from the body. In the instance where three years intervened between the flinging of the two harpoons; and I think it may have been something more than that; the man who darted them happening, in the interval, to go in a trading ship on a voyage to Africa, went ashore there, joined a discovery party, and penetrated far into the interior, where he travelled for a period of nearly two years, often endangered by serpents, savages, tigers, poisonous miasmas, with all the other common perils incident to wandering in the heart of unknown regions. Meanwhile, the whale he had struck must also have been on its travels; no doubt it had thrice circumnavigated the globe, brushing with its flanks all the coasts of Africa; but to no purpose. This man and this whale again came together, and the one vanquished the other. I say I, myself, have known three instances similar to this; that is in two of them I saw the whales struck; and, upon the second attack, saw the two irons with the respective marks cut in them, afterwards taken from the dead fish. In the three-year instance, it so fell out that I was in the boat both times, first and last, and the last time distinctly recognised a peculiar sort of huge mole under the whale's eye, which I had observed there three years previous. I say three years, but I am pretty sure it was more than that. Here are three instances, then, which I personally know the truth of; but I have heard of many other instances from persons whose veracity in the matter there is no good ground to impeach.
"You are at least logical. I would only point out that from the right of might, to the right of tigers and crocodiles, or even Daniloff and Gorsky, is but a step."
But no sooner did his harpooneer stand up for the stroke, than all three tigers--Queequeg, Tashtego, Daggoo--instinctively sprang to their feet, and standing in a diagonal row, simultaneously pointed their barbs; and darted over the head of the German harpooneer, their three Nantucket irons entered the whale. Blinding vapours of foam and white-fire! The three boats, in the first fury of the whale's headlong rush, bumped the German's aside with such force, that both Derick and his baffled harpooneer were spilled out, and sailed over by the three flying keels.
These lofty walls which he had seen around tigers, he now beheld once more around lambs.
Thus while he spoke, already she began, With sparkling eyes, to view the guilty man; From head to foot survey'd his person o'er, Nor longer these outrageous threats forebore: "False as thou art, and, more than false, forsworn! Not sprung from noble blood, nor goddess-born, But hewn from harden'd entrails of a rock! And rough Hyrcanian tigers gave thee suck! Why should I fawn? what have I worse to fear? Did he once look, or lent a list'ning ear, Sigh'd when I sobb'd, or shed one kindly tear?- All symptoms of a base ungrateful mind, So foul, that, which is worse, 'tis hard to find. Of man's injustice why should I complain? The gods, and Jove himself, behold in vain Triumphant treason; yet no thunder flies, Nor Juno views my wrongs with equal eyes; Faithless is earth, and faithless are the skies! Justice is fled, and Truth is now no more! I sav'd the shipwrack'd exile on my shore; With needful food his hungry Trojans fed; I took the traitor to my throne and bed: Fool that I was- 't is little to repeat The rest- I stor'd and rigg'd his ruin'd fleet. I rave, I rave! A god's command he pleads, And makes Heav'n accessary to his deeds. Now Lycian lots, and now the Delian god, Now Hermes is employ'd from Jove's abode, To warn him hence; as if the peaceful state Of heav'nly pow'rs were touch'd with human fate! But go! thy flight no longer I detain- Go seek thy promis'd kingdom thro' the main! Yet, if the heav'ns will hear my pious vow, The faithless waves, not half so false as thou, Or secret sands, shall sepulchers afford To thy proud vessels, and their perjur'd lord. Then shalt thou call on injur'd Dido's name: Dido shall come in a black sulph'ry flame, When death has once dissolv'd her mortal frame; Shall smile to see the traitor vainly weep: Her angry ghost, arising from the deep, Shall haunt thee waking, and disturb thy sleep. At least my shade thy punishment shall know, And Fame shall spread the pleasing news below."
Jean Valjean turned pale; the very thought of descending again into that terrible street made him shudder. You make your way out of a forest filled with tigers, and once out of it, imagine a friendly counsel that shall advise you to return thither! Jean Valjean pictured to himself the whole police force still engaged in swarming in that quarter, agents on the watch, sentinels everywhere, frightful fists extended towards his collar, Javert at the corner of the intersection of the streets perhaps.
"Yes; and remember that two-legged tigers and crocodiles are more dangerous than the others."
"'Has the daughter of Ali Tepelini spoken the truth?' said the president. 'Is she, then, the terrible witness to whose charge you dare not plead "Not guilty"? Have you really committed the crimes of which you are accused?' The count looked around him with an expression which might have softened tigers, but which could not disarm his judges. Then he raised his eyes towards the ceiling, but withdrew then, immediately, as if he feared the roof would open and reveal to his distressed view that second tribunal called heaven, and that other judge named God. Then, with a hasty movement, he tore open his coat, which seemed to stifle him, and flew from the room like a madman; his footstep was heard one moment in the corridor, then the rattling of his carriage-wheels as he was driven rapidly away. 'Gentlemen,' said the president, when silence was restored, 'is the Count of Morcerf convicted of felony, treason, and conduct unbecoming a member of this House?'--'Yes,' replied all the members of the committee of inquiry with a unanimous voice.
If she had managed the victory at once, and he had yielded and sincerely laid his heart at her feet, I should have covered my face, turned to the wall, and (figuratively) have died to them. If Miss Ingram had been a good and noble woman, endowed with force, fervour, kindness, sense, I should have had one vital struggle with two tigers--jealousy and despair: then, my heart torn out and devoured, I should have admired her--acknowledged her excellence, and been quiet for the rest of my days: and the more absolute her superiority, the deeper would have been my admiration--the more truly tranquil my quiescence. But as matters really stood, to watch Miss Ingram's efforts at fascinating Mr. Rochester, to witness their repeated failure--herself unconscious that they did fail; vainly fancying that each shaft launched hit the mark, and infatuatedly pluming herself on success, when her pride and self-complacency repelled further and further what she wished to allure--to witness _this_, was to be at once under ceaseless excitation and ruthless restraint.
The wild animals found in the district comprise a few tigers, leopards and wild elephants, deer, wild pig, porcupines, jackals, foxes, hares, otters, &c. The green monkey is very common; porpoises abound in the large rivers. The manufactures consist of weaving, embroidery, gold and silver work, shell-carving and pottery. The weaving industry and the manufacture of fine Dacca muslins have greatly fallen off, owing to the competition of European piece goods. Forty different kinds of cloth were formerly manufactured in this district, the bulk of which during many years was made from English twist, country thread being used only for the finest muslins. It is said that, in the time of the emperor Jahangir, a piece of muslin, 15 ft. by 3, could be manufactured, weighing only 900 grains, its value being £40. In 1840 the finest cloth that could be made of the above dimensions weighed about 1600 grains, and was worth £10. Since then the manufacture has still further decayed, and the finer kinds are not now made at all except to order. The district is traversed by a line of the Eastern Bengal railway, but most of the traffic is still conducted by water. It is a centre of the jute trade. Entry: DACCA
With regard to the merits of European dressing, it may be fairly taken that English, German and French dressers have specialities of excellence. In England, for instance, the dressing of sables, martens, foxes, otters, seals, bears, lions, tigers and leopards is first rate; while with skunk, mink, musquash, chinchillas, beavers, lambs and squirrels, the Germans show better results, particularly in the last. The pelt after the German dressing is dry, soft and white, which is due to a finishing process where meal is used, thus they compare favourably with the moister and consequently heavier English finish. In France they do well with cheaper skins, such as musquash, rabbit and hare, which they dye in addition to dressing. Russian dressing is seldom reliable; not only is there an unpleasant odour, but in damp weather the pelts often become clammy, which is due to the saline matter in the dressing mixture. Chinese dressing is white and supple, but contains much powder, which is disagreeable and difficult to get rid of, and in many instances the skin is rendered so thin that the roots of the fur are weakened, which means that it is liable to shed itself freely, when subject to ordinary friction in handling or wearing. American and Canadian dressing is gradually improving, but hitherto their results have been inferior to the older European methods. Entry: WOMBAT
_Natural Supplies._--We are dependent upon the Carnivora, Rodentia, Ungulata and Marsupialia for our supplies of furs, the first two classes being by far of the greatest importance. The Carnivora include bears, wolverines, wolves, raccoons, foxes, sables, martens, skunks, kolinskis, fitch, fishers, ermines, cats, sea otters, fur seals, hair seals, lions, tigers, leopards, lynxes, jackals, &c. The Rodentia include beavers, nutrias, musk-rats or musquash, marmots, hamsters, chinchillas, hares, rabbits, squirrels, &c. The Ungulata include Persian, Astrachan, Crimean, Chinese and Tibet lambs, mouflon, guanaco, goats, ponies, &c. The Marsupialia include opossums, wallabies and kangaroos. These, of course, could be subdivided, but for general purposes of the fur trade the above is deemed sufficient. Entry: FUR
_Fauna._--The fauna is very varied, but some of the wild animals common in the early days of the colony have been exterminated (e.g. quagga and blaauwbok), and others (e.g. the lion, rhinoceros, giraffe) driven beyond the confines of the Cape. Other game have been so reduced in numbers as to require special protection. This class includes the elephant (now found only in the Knysna and neighbouring forest regions), buffalo and zebra (strictly preserved, and confined to much the same regions as the elephant), eland, oribi, koodoo, haartebeest and other kinds of antelope and gnu. The leopard is not protected, but lingers in the mountainous districts. Cheetahs are also found, including a rare woolly variety peculiar to the Karroo. Both the leopards and cheetahs are commonly spoken of in South Africa as tigers. Other carnivora more or less common to the colony are the spotted hyena, aard-wolf (or _Proteles_), silver jackal, the _Otocyon_ or Cape wild dog, and various kinds of wild cats. Of ungulata, besides a few hundreds of rare varieties, there are the springbuck, of which great herds still wander on the open veld, the steinbok, a small and beautiful animal which is sometimes coursed like a hare, the klipspringer or "chamois of South Africa," common in the mountains, the wart-hog and the dassie or rock rabbit. There are two or three varieties of hares, and a species of jerboa and several genera of mongooses. The English rabbit has been introduced into Robben Island, but is excluded from the mainland. The ant-bear, with very long snout, tongue and ears, is found on the Karroo, where it makes inroads on the ant-heaps which dot the plain. There is also a scaly ant-eater and various species of pangolins, of arboreal habit, which live on ants. Baboons are found in the mountains and forests, otters in the rivers. Of reptiles there are the crocodile, confined to the Transkei rivers, several kinds of snakes, including the cobra di capello and puff adder, numerous lizards and various tortoises, including the leopard tortoise, the largest of the continental land forms. Of birds the ostrich may still be found wild in some regions. The great kori bustard is sometimes as much as 5 ft. high. Other game birds include the francolin, quail, guinea-fowl, sand-grouse, snipe, wild duck, wild goose, widgeon, teal, plover and rail. Birds of prey include the bearded vulture, aasvogel and several varieties of eagles, hawks, falcons and owls. Cranes, storks, flamingoes and pelicans are found in large variety. Entry: TABLE
Yet these are "not the saints but the tigers of the insect world." The front pair of limbs are very peculiarly modified--the coxa being greatly elongated, while the strong third joint or femur bears on its curved underside a channel armed on each edge by strong movable spines. Into this groove the stout tibia is capable of closing like the blade of a pen-knife, its sharp, serrated edge being adapted to cut and hold. Thus armed, with head raised upon the much-elongated and semi-erect prothorax, and with the half-opened fore-limbs held outwards in the characteristic devotional attitude, it rests motionless upon the four posterior limbs waiting for prey, or occasionally stalks it with slow and silent movements, finally seizing it with its knife-blades and devouring it. Although apparently not daring to attack ants, these insects destroy great numbers of flies, grasshoppers and caterpillars, and the larger South-American species even attack small frogs, lizards and birds. They are very pugnacious, fencing with their sword-like limbs "like hussars with sabres," the larger frequently devouring the smaller, and the females the males. The Chinese keep them in bamboo cages, and match them like fighting-cocks. Entry: MANTIS
MADELENIAN, a term derived from La Madeleine, a cave in the Vézère, about midway between Moustier and Les Eyzies, France, and given by the French anthropologist Gabriel de Mortillet to the third stage of his system of cave-chronology, synchronous with the fourth or most recent division of the Quaternary Age. The Madelenian epoch was a long one, represented by numerous stations, whose contents show progress in the arts and general culture. It was characterized by a cold and dry climate, the existence of man in association with the reindeer, and the extinction of the mammoth. The use of bone and ivory for various implements, already begun in the preceding Solutrian epoch, was much increased, and the period is essentially a Bone age. The bone instruments are very varied: spear-points, harpoon-heads, borers, hooks and needles. Most remarkable is the evidence La Madeleine affords of prehistoric art. Numbers of bones, reindeer antlers and animals' teeth were found, with rude pictures, carved or etched on them, of seals, fishes, reindeer, mammoths and other creatures. The best of these are a mammoth engraved on a fragment of its own ivory; a dagger of reindeer antler, with handle in form of a reindeer; a cave-bear cut on a flat piece of schist; a seal on a bear's tooth; a fish well drawn on a reindeer antler; and a complete picture, also on reindeer antler, showing horses, an aurochs, trees, and a snake biting a man's leg. The man is naked, and this and the snake suggest a warm climate, in spite of the presence of the reindeer. The fauna of the Madelenian epoch seems, indeed, to have included tigers and other tropical species side by side with reindeer, blue foxes, Arctic hares and other polar creatures. Madelenian man appears to have been of low stature, dolichocephalic, with low retreating forehead and prominent brow ridges. Besides La Madeleine the chief stations of the epoch are Les Eyzies, Laugerie Basse, and Gorge d'Enfer in Dordogne; Grotte du Placard in Charente and others in south-west France. Entry: MADELENIAN
BARYE, ANTOINE LOUIS (1796-1875), French sculptor, was born in Paris on the 24th of September 1796. Like many of the sculptors of the Renaissance he began life as a goldsmith. After studying under Bosio, the sculptor, and Gros, the painter, he was in 1818 admitted to the École des Beaux Arts. But it was not till 1823, when he was working for Fauconnier, the goldsmith, that he discovered his real bent from watching the wild beasts in the Jardin des Plantes, making vigorous studies of them in pencil drawings worthy of Delacroix and then modelling them in sculpture on a large or small scale. In 1831 he exhibited his "Tiger devouring a Crocodile," and in 1832 had mastered a style of his own in the "Lion and Snake." Thenceforward Barye, though engaged in a perpetual struggle with want, exhibited year after year these studies of animals--admirable groups which reveal him as inspired by a spirit of true romance and a feeling for the beauty of the antique, as in "Theseus and the Minotaur" (1847), "Lapitha and Centaur" (1848), and numerous minor works now very highly valued. Barye was no less successful in sculpture on a small scale, and excelled in representing animals in their most familiar attitudes. As examples of his larger work we may mention the Lion of the Column of July, of which the plaster model was cast in 1839, various lions and tigers in the gardens of the Tuileries, and the four groups--War, Peace, Strength, and Order (1854). In 1852 he cast his bronze "Jaguar devouring a Hare." The fame he deserved came too late to the sculptor. He was made professor at the museum in 1854, and was elected to the Academy of Fine Arts in 1868. He died on the 25th of June 1875. The mass of admirable work left to us by Barye entitles him to be regarded as the greatest artist of animal life of the French school, and as the creator of a new class of art which has attracted such men as Frémiet, Peter, Cain, and Gardet, who are regarded with justice as his worthiest followers. Entry: BARYE
_Tiger_.--The tiger is associated with Siva and Durga, but its cult is confined to the wilder tribes; in Nepal the tiger festival is known as Bagh Jatra, and the worshippers dance disguised as tigers. The Waralis worship Waghia the lord of tigers in the form of a shapeless stone. In Hanoi and Manchuria tiger-gods are also found. Entry: B
TIGER.--Size varies considerably, largest about 10 ft. from nose to root of tail. Tigers are found throughout India, Turkestan, China, Mongolia and the East Indies. The coats of the Bengal kind are short and of a dark orange brown with black stripes, those from east or further India are similar in colour, but longer in the hair, while those from north of the Himalayas and the mountains of China are not only huge in size, but have a very long soft hair of delicate orange brown with very white flanks, and marked generally with the blackest of stripes. The last are of a noble appearance and exceedingly scarce. They all make handsome floor rugs. Entry: TIGER
_Nimravus_, of the American Oligocene, with two premolars and two molars in the lower jaw, and comparatively short upper canines, seems to be the least specialized type; next to which comes _Hoplophoneus_, another North American Oligocene genus, in which the tubercular lower molar is lost, and the upper canine is longer. It is noteworthy, however, that this genus retains the third trochanter to the femur, which is lost in _Nimravus_. _Machaerodus_, in the wider sense, includes the larger and more typical forms. In the Pliocene of France and Italy it is represented by _M. megantereon_, a species not larger than a leopard, and allied forms occur in the Pliocene of Greece, Hungary, Samos, Persia, India and China, as well as in the Middle Miocene of France and Germany. Far larger is the Pleistocene _M. cultridens_ of the caverns of Europe, with serrated upper tusks several inches in length. From Europe and Asia the sabre-toothed tigers may be traced into North and thence into South America, the home of _M. (Smilodon) neogaeus_, the largest of the whole tribe, whose remains occur in the Brazilian caves and the silt of the Argentine pampas. This animal was as large as a tiger, with tusks projecting seven inches from the jaw and very complex carnassials; the feet were very short, with only four toes to the hind-pair, and the humerus has lost the foramen at the lower end. Very noteworthy is the occurrence of an imperfectly known specialized type--_Eusmilus_--in the Lower Oligocene of Europe and perhaps also North America. Unlike all other cats, it had only two pairs of lower incisors, and the large cheek-teeth were reduced to the carnassial and one premolar in advance of the same. (R. L.*) Entry: MACHAERODUS
The characteristic beast of prey in India is the tiger (_F. tigris_), which is found in every part of the country, from the slopes of the Himalayas to the Sundarbans swamps. The average length of a tiger from nose to tip of tail is 9 ft. to 10 ft. for tigers, and 8 ft. to 9 ft. for tigresses, but a tiger of 12 ft. 4 in. has been shot. The advance of cultivation, even more than the incessant attacks of sportsmen, has gradually caused the tiger to become a rare animal in large tracts of country; but it is scarcely probable that he will ever be exterminated from India. The malarious _tarái_ fringing the Himalayas, the uninhabitable swamps of the Gangetic delta, and the wide jungles of the central plateau are at present the chief home of the tiger. His favourite food appears to be deer, antelope and wild hog. When these abound he will disregard domestic cattle. Indeed, the natives are disposed to consider him as in some sort their protector, as he saves their crops from destruction by the wild animals on which he feeds. But when once he develops a taste for human blood, then the slaughter he works becomes truly formidable. The confirmed man-eater, which is generally an old beast, disabled from overtaking his usual prey, seems to accumulate his tale of victims in sheer cruelty rather than for food. A single tiger is known to have killed 108 people in the course of three years. Another killed an average of about 80 persons per annum. A third caused thirteen villages to be abandoned, and 250 sq. m. of land to be thrown out of cultivation. A fourth, in 1869, killed 127 people, and stopped a public road for many weeks, until the opportune arrival of an English sportsman, who at last killed him. Such cases are, of course, exceptional, and generally refer to a period long past, but they explain and justify the superstitious awe with which the tiger is regarded by the natives. The favourite mode of shooting the tiger is from the back of elephants, or from elevated platforms (_macháns_) of boughs in the jungle. In Central India they are shot on foot. In Assam they are sometimes speared from boats, and in the Himalayas they are said to be ensnared by bird-lime. Rewards are given by government to native _shikáris_ for the heads of tigers, varying in time and place according to the need. In 1903 the number of persons killed by tigers in the whole of India was 866, while forty years previously 700 people were said to be killed annually in Bengal alone. Entry: 4