IN the class of carnivorous animals, the lion holds the first rank, and the tiger the second. As the first of a bad genus is always the largest, and has often the best dispositions, the second is generally the most rapacious and destructive. To pride, courage, and strength, the lion adds dignity, clemency, and magnanimity. But the tiger is grossly ferocious, and cruel without neces- [153] sity. The same thing takes place in all nature, where rank is the offspring of strength. The first, in which all power resides, is less tyrannical than his immediate inferior, who, unable to obtain unlimited power, avenges himself, by abusing that portion of it which he enjoys. Thus the tiger is more to be dreaded than the lion. The latter often forgets that he is the sovereign, or the strongest of all animals. He moves forward with tranquillity [sic] and steadiness, and never attacks man, unless when provoked. He never runs with precipitation, nor gives chace [sic], but when pressed with hunger. The tiger, on the contrary, though satiated with carnage, seems to be perpetually thirsting for blood. His fury has no intervals, but during the time he is obliged to lie in ambush for prey at the sides of rivers. He seizes and tears to pieces a fresh animal with the same rage that he exerted in devouring the first. He desolates the country which he inhabits, and fears neither the aspect nor the arms of man. He puts to death whole flocks of domestic animals, and all the wild beasts which come in his way: He attacks the young elephant and rhinoceros, and sometimes even ventures to brave the lion.
The form of the body generally accords with the natural disposition. The air of the lion is noble; the height of his limbs is proportioned to the length of his body. His large thick mane, which covers his shoulders, and forms a shade to [154] his face, his determined aspect, his grave demeanour, all concur in announcing his proud and majestic intrepidity. The too great length of the body of the tiger, and his disproportionately short limbs, his naked head, his haggard eyes, and his blood-coloured tongue, which always lolls out of his mouth, are marks of ignoble malice and insatiable cruelty. He has no instinct but perpetual rage, a blind and undistinguishing ferocity, which often impells [sic] him to devour his own young, and to tear in pieces their mother, when she attempts to defend them. May this excessive thirst for blood never be allayed, till he has destroyed the whole race of monsters which he produces!
It is a fortunate circumstance for the other animals, that the species of the tiger is not numerous, and appears to be confined to the warmest regions of the East Indies. Tigers are found in Malabar, in Siam, in Bengal, the same countries which are inhabited by the elephant and rhinoceros. They are even said to follow the rhinoceros for the purpose of eating his dung,* which both refreshes and purges them. They frequent, with him, the borders of the rivers and lakes; for, as blood only augments their thirst, they have often occasion for water, to cool the fervour which consumes them. Besides, they watch, [155] near the waters, the approach of animals, which the heat of the climate obliges to resort thither several times a day. Here they procure their prey, or rather multiply their massacres; for they often leave the creatures they have recently killed, to devour others. They delight in blood, and glut themselves with it till they are intoxicated. They tear the body for no other purpose than to plunge their head into it, and to drink large draughts of blood, the sources of which are generally exhausted before their thirst is appeased.
When, however, the tiger kills large animals, as a horse or buffalo, he does not tear out their bowels on the spot; but, to prevent interruption, and that he may devour them at leisure, he drags them off to the wood with such incredible swiftness, that his course seems to be hardly retarded by their enormous weight.* This is sufficient to give an idea of his strength; but it will be rendered still clearer by attending to the dimensions of his body. Some travellers have compared him to the horse,+ others to the buffalo,3 and [156] others have only said that he is much larger than the lion.* But we have authorities more recent, and above all suspicion. We are assured by M. de la Lande-Magon, that he has seen, in the East Indies, a tiger of fifteen feet in length, including the tail, which, supposing it to be four or five feet, the length of the body was at least ten. The skin preserved in the royal cabinet, it is true, exceeds not seven feet from the extremity of the muzzle to the origin of the tail. But the tiger to which it belonged was taken when very young, and was ever afterward confined in a narrow apartment, where the want of exercise and room, the languor and restraint of confinement, and unnatural food, shortened his life, and prevented the proper extension of his body. In the history of the stag,+ it was remarked, that these animals, when taken young, and shut up in too small parks, not only never acquired their natural size, but became deformed and rickety. We likewise learn, from the dissections of every species of animals brought up in houses or courtyards, that their bodies and members, for want of exercise, never acquire their natural dimensions; that such organs cannot be used, as those of generation, are so minute, in all captive and solitary animals, that it is difficult to discover them. The difference of climate alone may produce the same effects as confinement and want of exer- [157] cise. Animals peculiar to warm climates, though left at liberty, and well fed, are incapable of multiplying in cold countries: And, reproduction being the natural effect of copious nutrition, it is evident, that, as the former faculty is destroyed, the latter must also be incomplete; and that, in these animals, cold alone is sufficient to restrain the action of the internal mould, and to diminish growth, since it is capable of obliterating the power of reproduction.
It is not, therefore, surprising, that this tiger, whose skin and skeleton is preserved in the royal cabinet, should not have acquired its natural size. The bare inspection, however, of this stuffed skin, and of the skeleton, conveys an idea of a most formidable animal. Upon the bones of the leg, there are rugosities, or impressions, which indicate the attachment of muscles still stronger than those of the lion. These bones are also equally strong, though shorter; and, as formerly remarked, the height of the tiger’s legs is not proportioned to the great length of his body. Hence the incredible swiftness ascribed to him by Pliny, and which is implied in the name of the animal,* cannot be attributed to his ordinary movements, nor even to the quickness of a continued course; for it is apparent, from the [158] shortness of his legs, that he can neither walk nor run+ with such celerity as those animals whose legs are proportionally longer. But this prodigious swiftness may, with propriety, be applied to the terrible bounds which he makes without any extraordinary effort; for, if we suppose his strength and suppleness to be proportioned to those of the cat, which he greatly resembles in structure, and which leaps, in an instant, to the distance of many feet, the tiger, whose body is ten times longer, may, nearly in the same instant, leap many fathoms. Hence it is not the celerity of his course, but the quickness of his leap, which Pliny meant to describe, and which renders this animal tremendous, because it is impossible to avoid him, after he makes his spring.
The tiger is perhaps the only animal whose ferocity cannot be subdued. Neither violence nor restraint have any effect in softening his temper. He is equally irritated with gentle or rough treatment. The mild influence of society makes no impression on the obduracy of his nature. Time, instead of mollifying the ferocious- [159] ness of his humour, only exasperates his rage. With equal wrath he tears the hand which feeds him, as that which is lifted up to strike him. He roars at the sight of every thing that lives. Every object appears to him as a fresh prey, which he devours beforehand with the avidity of his eyes, menaces with frightful groans, and the grinding of his teeth, and often darts upon it, without regarding his chains, which only restrain, but cannot calm his fury.
To complete the idea of the strength of this animal,+ we shall give Father Tachard’s relation of a combat between a tiger and two elephants. “A palisade,”3 says this author, “of about a hundred paces square, was erected. Into this inclosure two elephants were introduced, for the purpose of fighting a tiger. They were defended by a kind of plastron, in the form of a mask, which covered the head and a part of the trunk. As soon as we arrived, a large tiger was brought out of his lodge. His colour and figure were new to the Frenchmen who were present at this combat; for he was not only much longer and thicker than those we have seen in France, but his skin was differently spotted. Instead of spots scattered [160] without order, he had long, broad, circular bands, which, arising from the back, joined below the belly, and were continued along the tail, in the form of alternate white and black rings. There was nothing peculiar in his head or limbs, excepting that they were larger than those of common tigers, though the animal had not yet acquired his full growth; for M. Constance informed us, that there were tigers in that kingdom three times larger; and that, when hunting along with the king, he had once seen a tiger nearly as large as the biggest mule. They have also a smaller kind, like that brought from Africa to Europe, one of which I was shown the same day at Louvo.”
“The tiger destined for the combat was not let loose, but was so fixed by two cords, that, having no liberty to spring, the first elephant which approached gave him two or three blows on the back with his trunk. These strokes were so heavy, that they beat the tiger to the ground, where he lay for some time as if he had been dead. But, though this first attack had abated his fury, he was no sooner untied, than he gave a horrible roar, and made a spring at the elephant’s trunk, which was stretched out to strike him. The elephant, however, dexterously drew up his trunk, protected it with his tusks, which he presented at the same time, and with them he threw the tiger to a great height in the air. The tiger [161] was so stunned, that he made no further advances, but took several turns round the palisade, and sometimes sprung towards the people in the galleries. Three elephants were then set upon him, each of whom, in their turn, gave him such blows, that he again seemed to be dead, and afterwards endeavoured only to avoid his enemies, who would unquestionably have killed him, if an end had not been put to the combat.” Even from Father Tachard’s description, it is plain, that the tiger he saw fight with the elephants is the true tiger; that he appeared to be a new animal to the Frenchmen, because they had probably seen, in France, only African panthers or leopards, or, rather, the American jaguars; and that the small tiger he saw at Louvo was nothing but a panther. We may likewise conceive, from this simple narrative, the amazing strength and ferocity of the tiger. Though young, and not arrived at his full growth, through a captive, and bound with ropes, though single against three; yet this tiger was so formidable to those enormous animals, that all the parts of their bodies which Nature had not defended with an impenetrable skin, were obliged to be covered with plastrons or cushions.
The tiger, of which an anatomical description was made by the Jesuits at China, and communicated to the Academy of Sciences by Father Gouie,* seemed to be the genuine tiger, as well [162] as that called the Royal Tiger, mentioned by Perault,* in his memoirs concerning animals, and of which he says the description was made in Siam. Dellon,+ in his voyages mentions expressly, that tigers are more frequent in Malabar than in any other part of the East Indies; that there are several species of them; but that the largest, which is as big as a horse, and called the Royal Tiger by the Portuguese, is extremely rare.
The royal tiger, therefore, appears not to be a different species. He is found in the East Indies only, and not in Brasil, as has been alledged by some of our naturalists.3 I am even inclined to believe, that the true tiger is peculiar to Asia, and the interior parts of the South of Africa; for, though most travellers who have visited the coasts of Africa mention tigers, yet it is easy to [163] perceive from their descriptions, that they are not genuine tigers, but leopards, panthers, ounces, &c. Doctor Shaw remarks,+ that, in the kingdoms of Tunis and Algiers, the lion and panther hold the first rank among the rapacious animals; but that the tiger is not found in this part of Barbary. Doctor Shaw’s observation seems to be just; for they were Indian, not African ambassadors,3 who presented to Augustus, when at Samos, the first tiger that was ever seen by the Romans. It was also from India that Heliogabalus procured those tigers with which he wished to have his chariot drawn, when he wanted to personate the god Bacchus.
Thus the species of the tiger has always been more rare and less diffused than that of the lion. The female, however, like the lioness, produces four or five cubs at a litter. She is furious at all times; but her rage rises to the utmost extremity, when robbed of her young. She then braves every danger; she pursues the plunderers, who are often obliged to release one, in order to retard her motion. She stops, takes it up, and carries it off to the nearest cover; but she instantly returns, and continues the pursuit after the spoilers to the very gates of their villages, or to their boats. When all hope of recovering them is lost, she expresses the exquisiteness of [164] her sorrow by dismal and hideous howlings, which excite terror wherever they reach.
The tiger, like the lion, moves the skin of his face, grinds his teeth, and roars; but the sound of his voice, which has, by some travellers, been compared to that of certain large birds,* is different. Tigrides indomitae rancant, rugiuntque leones; (Autor Philomelae.). The word rancant has no synonime [sic] in English. It is expressive of a hoarse and frightful cry.+
The skin of these animals is much esteemed, especially in China. The military mandarins, in their public marches, cover their sedans, and likewise their pillows, during the winter, with tigers [sic] skins. In Europe, these skins, though rare, are not much valued. Those of the leopard of Guiney and Senegal, called tigers skins by our furriers, are preferred. Besides, the skin is the only use that can be derived from this most noxious of all quadrupeds. His sweat,3 and the hair of his whiskers,4 are alledged to be certain poisons to man and other animals. But he does so much real mischief when alive, that it is needless to ascribe imaginary evils to [165] his remains; for the Indians eat his flesh, and find it neither unwholesome nor disagreeable; and, if a pill composed of his whiskers is mortal, this effect is produced by the sharpness and roughness of the hair, which acts on the stomach in the same manner as small needles. [166] [PLATE CIX here].
* The Tiger has six cutting, and two canine teeth in each jaw; five toes before, and four behind. The claws are sharp, hooked, lodged in a sheath, and may be exerted or drawn in at pleasure. The head is round, the visage short, and the tongue rough. Both the head and body of the tiger are smooth. He has vast strength I his limbs. His colour is a pale yellow, beautifully marked with long stripes of black, pointing from the back to the belly, and others across the thighs. The tail is about one third shorter than the body, and annulated with black. His size is often superior to that of the lion. The Royal tiger is of a tremendous bulk. M. de Buffon mentions one that, tail included, was fifteen feet long. Du Halde says, that the Chinese tigers vary in colour, some being white, striped with black and gray; Pennant’s Synops. of quad. p. 167.
In Latin, Tigris; in Italian Tigra; in German Tigerthier.
CHAR. GEN. Dentes primores aequales; Molares, terni. Lingua retrorsum aceuleata. Ungues retractiles.—CHAR. SPEC. Felis tigris, cauda elongate, corpore maculis omnibus virgatis; Lynn. Syst. Nat. p. 61.
Tigris; Gesner, Hist. quad. p. 936. Ray, Synops. quad. p. 165. Klein, de quad. p. 78. Plinii, lib. 8. c. 18.
Felis flava, maculis longis nigris variegate Tigris; Brisson, Regn. animal. p. 268 [back to page 153].
* Jac. Bontii Hist. Nat. Ind. Orient. p. 54. Recueil des voyages de la Compagnie des Indes, tom. 7. p. 278. Voyage de Schoutten aux Index Orientales [back to page 155].
* Jac. Gontii Hist. Nat. Ind. Orient. p. 53.
+ Les voyages de Dellon. p. 104.
3. The tigers of India, says Boullaye-le-Gouz, are of a prodigious size. I have seen skins of them longer and wider than that of a buffalo. They are sometimes addicted to eat men; and, in many parts of India, no man travels without being well armed, because the tiger, whose figure resembles that of a cat, raises himself on his hind-legs, and leaps upon the person he attacks; Voyage de la Boullaye-le-Gouz, p. 246. 247 [back to page 156].
* Prosper. Alp. Hist. Nat. Ægypt. P. 237. Wotton, p. 65.
+ See vol. IV. Art. STAG [back to page 157].
* Tigris vocabulum est linguae Armeniae; nam ibi et fagitta et quod vehementissimum slumen, dicitur Tigris; Varro de lingua Latina—Persae et Medi sagittam Tigrim nuncupant; Gesn. hist. quad. p. 936 [back to page 158].
+ The terrible swiftness, says Bontius, ascribed by Pliny to this animal, is an error. On the contrary, he runs slowly; and this is the reason why he more willingly attacks men than swift animals, as the stag, the wild boar, the buffalo, or the wild ox, and why he attacks all animals by ambuscade. He darts with impetuosity upon their heads, and beats the strongest animals to the ground with a single stroke of his paw; Bont. p. 53. It is easy to reconcile these facts with the expressions of Pliny [Note: This is the first and only note on the page. The printer departed from normal practice, however, and used the “plus” sign rather than usual “*” to denote it. Back to page 159].
+ Indi tigrim elephanto robustiorem multo existeimant. Nearchus scribit, Indos referre esse maximi equi magnitudine, velocitate et viribus bestias omnes superare, elephantum etiam, insilientem in caput ejus, facile suftocare; Gesn. hist. quad. p. 937.
3. Premier voyage de Siam, par le Perè Tachard, p. 292 [Note: The printer did not use the usual asterisk sign to denote the first note, but instead used the “plus” sign and the “double plus” signs – usually reserved for the second and third notes on a page – to designate these two notes. Back to page 160].
* The spotted tiger is the only one known in Europe. [162] But in Tartary and China, there are tigers with black bands or belts; and, even in these countries, two species are mentioned, though no other differences appear to exist. The tiger dissected by the Jesuits of China, which had been killed in the chace by the Emperor, along with other four, weighed only 265 pounds, and, consequently, was none of the largest; another of them weighed 400 pounds. The one that was dissected had a third part of his stomach filled with worms, though it is not said that he was in a putrid state. Some of the people who were present remarked, that they had observed the same appearance in a tiger which was dissected at Macao; Hist. de l’Acad. des Sciences, anneé 1699. p. 51 [this note straddles two pages, with the break occurring where indicated above. Back to page 162].
* Mem. pour servir a l’hist. des anim. part. 2. p. 287.
+ Voyages de Dellon, p. 104.
3. Regn. anim. Brisson. p. 269 [back to page 163].
+ Shaw’s travels.
3. Descript. des Isles de l’Archipel. Par Dapper, p. 206 [Note: The printer did not use the usual asterisk sign to denote the first note, but instead used the “plus” sign and the “double plus” signs – usually reserved for the second and third notes on a page – to designate these two notes. Back to page 164].
* Second voyage de Siam, par le P. Tachard, p. 248.
+ The tigers of the eastern regions of Asia are remarkably large and swift. Their general colour is a reddish yellow. Their roar, like that of the lion, raises horror in the hearer; Voyage de Coreal, tom . 1. p. 173.
3. Hist. Nat. de Siam, par Gervaise, p. 36.
4. La Chine illustrée, par Kircher, p. 110 [back to page 165].