It really all adds up
BY LITO BANAYO
Tiger tales
BERNARD KARGANILLA
‘The tiger is both the hunter and the hunted. As a predator, it is stealthy and fearsome.’
"PATRIOTISM is the guise under which the instincts of tiger and wolf run riot." [G.E. Partridge. "The Psychology of Nations: A Contribution to the Philosophy of History." New York: The Macmillan Company, 1919]
Who has displayed these instincts? Perhaps the imperialists, as charged by "The Free Hindustan" to wit: "The tiger qualities of the British are much in evidence now in India. They think that by the strength of the sword they will keep down India! It is this arrogance that has brought about the bomb, and the more they tyrannize over a helpless and unarmed people, the more terrorism will grow." [Emma Goldman, "Anarchism and Other Essays," New York, December, 1910]
For some of the Westerners, it is the Orientals who have these characteristics, as testified by Rufus Anderson, D.D., LL.D., in 1852.
"In the ten days which Dr. Lobdell spent with Mr. Dunmore at Diarbekir, he was impressed by the hold the reformation was taking in that place. At the same time, he and his missionary brother had a startling illustration of its hostility to the Gospel. They were looking at the great mosque of the city, formerly a Christian church, and in the words of Mr. Dunmore, ‘As we were standing in front of it, in the public highway, examining its architecture, several lads came up and began to insult us and to order us away. We did not notice them, but went further from the mosque, and stopped to examine some old marble pillars. Soon, however, we found a rabble about us, who began to jerk our garments. I then turned and spoke to them, and they instantly rushed upon us like tigers.’
"‘They seized Dr. Lobdell’s hat, threw it into the air, and began to beat him. One ruffian seized me by the throat. By main strength I loosed his grasp, and was moving off, when two men tried to wrest my cane from me, but did not succeed. We retreated as last as possible, but when we got out of the reach of their hands, they resorted to throwing stones, some of them weighing two or three pounds. One hit Dr. Lobdell in the side, and we saw no alternative but to run for our lives. We went immediately to the Pasha, taking one of the largest stones with us, and made a statement of the facts in the presence of the council. He refused to do anything more than to send a man to inquire who was in fault, the ruffians, or we! He said he knew nothing about us.’" ["History of the Missions of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to the Oriental Churches," Volume II, Boston: Congregational Publishing Society, 1872]
Isn’t it a good thing to possess the attributes of the tiger, as natives wished, and still want, in China?
"Coming from Szechuen, we frequently met porters carrying baskets of armadillos, leopard skins, leopard and tiger bones...From the bones of leopards an admirable tonic may be distilled; while it is well known that the infusion prepared from tiger bones is the greatest of the tonics, conferring something of the courage, agility, and strength of the tiger upon its partaker." [George Ernest Morrison, M.D. EDIN., F.R.G.S. "An Australian in China," 3rd edition. London: Horace Cox Windsor House, Bream’s Buildings E.C., MDCCCCII]
Who can be compared to the tiger? Kaiten Nukariya said, "Those who practise Zen, and have the faith in Amitabha, are like the tiger provided with wings." ["The Religion of the Samurai: A Study of Zen Philosophy and Discipline in China and Japan," Tokyo, 1913]
The tiger is both the hunter and the hunted. As a predator, it is stealthy and fearsome. Especially when it develops a taste for humans.
"It is a terrible thing when a hungry and ugly man-eater comes into a village, for the inhabitants are generally defenseless. They have no guns, because the government does not allow the natives to carry arms, and their only weapons are the implements of the farm. If they would clear out and scatter, the number of victims would not be so large, but they usually keep together for mutual defense, and, as a consequence, the animal has them at his mercy. A man-eater that has once tasted human flesh is never satiated, and attacks one victim after another until he has made away with an entire village." [William Eleroy Curtis, "Modern India," c. 1904]
In British India, 1,171 persons were killed by tigers in 1901, which was considerably less than usual. Thus, in the Province of Bengal, the government offered a bounty of $5 for every tiger skin. In addition, the ruler of Jeypore engaged in the traditional hunt for the creatures, taming those captured alive and displaying them at his park. How was it done?
"The maharaja catches tigers in the orthodox way. He has cages of iron and the toughest kind of wood set upon wheels so that they can be hauled into the jungle by oxen. When they reach a suitable place the oxen are unhitched, the hunters conceal the wheels and other parts of the wagon with boughs and palm leaves. A sheep or a goat or some other animal is sacrificed and placed in the cage for bait and the door is rigged so that it will remain open in an inviting manner until the tiger enters and lifts the carcass from the lever. The instant he disturbs the bait heavy iron bars drop over the hole through which he entered and he is a prisoner at the mercy of his captors. Sometimes the scheme fails and the hunters lose their time and trouble and bait, but being men of experience in such affairs they generally know the proper place and the proper season to look for game. When the watchers notify them that the trap is occupied they come with oxen and haul it to town, where it is backed up against a permanent cage in the menagerie, the iron door is lifted, and the tiger is punched with iron bars until he accepts the quarters that have been provided for him, and becomes a prisoner for life." [Curtis, Chapter XI: "About Snakes and Tigers"]
Fortunately, not all encounters between man and beast end in death, as R. Talbot Kelly related in his memoirs of Myanmar. "I heard of an amusing adventure which befell the keeper of the lighthouse at the mouth of the Rangoon River. He was enjoying a morning stroll along the beach, reading a book as he walked, and, as the sun was bright, he held his white umbrella before him to shield himself from the glare of sand and water. Suddenly he stumbled over a tiger lying fast asleep upon the shore, and with a yell of terror the lighthouse man, dropping book and sunshade on the ground, fled away as hard as he could run in one direction, to discover presently that the tiger, just as much alarmed as himself, had made an equally precipitous flight in the other." ["Burma: Peeps at Many Lands." London: Adam and Charles Black, 1908]
So, is it true? "Tigers never make false steps." [Helena Pretrovna Blavatsky. "From the Caves and Jungles of Hindostan," London, July 1892]