establishment of the Kingdom of
Heaven. Then we ask for the
supply of the ordinary needs of
existence, and for the forgive-
ness of our sins and shortcom-
ings just as we pardon those

who hurt us. We pray to be The Hibbert Journal.

kept from evil influences, and to be protected when they attack us. Finally, we repose in the might, majesty, and dominion of the Eternal Goodness.

Oliver Lodge.

THE TIGER THAT WAS NOT.

an

It is gray dawn on the banks of the rations of a similar nature are going Perak River. The little Malay owl has on in the next house-boat, whose flag uttered its last kú-hûp; in every tree of royal yellow betokens the presence small birds are twittering and fluffing of a member of the Sultan's family. their feathers to warm themselves, and It was now nearly two weeks since a on all sides the jungle-cocks are shrill- tiger had taken up its abode in a patch ing a cheery defiance to one another. of bluker, or secondary forest, behind Sunken under accumulation of the village at which the house-boats are ghost-like mists the wide expanse of moored. Day and night it had terrified river lies pale, drear, and chill. A the villagers by roaring to a mate, and faint saffron light in the east enables the local chief had applied for assistone dimly to discern upon the river ance to the Sultan's son, by whom, conbank a number of scattered dwellings, jointly with the District-Officer, the such as constitute a Malay village, and present arrangements for a drive bad at the water's edge a long line of teth- been made. ered' house-boats, prahus, and dug-outs. A Malay seated himself at a great One by one the Malays rouse them- brass gong hung in the rajah's boat, selves from sleep, and with eyes and and began to beat the assembly-call. brains still heavy with slumber, pull a Before long a distant boat shot out into scanty cotton cloth

shivering, midstream, and moved in the direction rounded, backs, and make their way of the sound. Then on all sides the to the river where they perform their bright surface of the water became morning ablutions and repeat the morn- dotted with black specks of various ing prayer of the Mahommedan.

size all converging on the one point A few minutes later a glory of gold The Malays whose houses were near at touches the saffron sky, tinges it, suf- hand collected in small groups upon the fuses it, absorbs it,-and there is day. bank. Round the landing-place prahus The sun springs above the horizon, and dug-outs clustered thickly. Some shows his clear disc above the distant held only a poler and a steersman, forest-covered mountains, and throws while others were laden to the water's long horizontal shafts of light and edge with a crowd of Malays perched warmth that dance upon the sparkling in ungainly bird-like attitudes, but in river and set coursing anew the blood apparent comfort, upon the bare inch of man and beast.

or two of the free-board. By the time On one of the house-boats, whose that the party, of whom the writer was Union Jack at the stern shows that one, was ready to step on shore, some she carries the District-Officer, the ser- two hundred Malays had mustered on vants are laying breakfast, and prepa- the bank. In this throng of men there

one

was not

who was not armed. before, and a line along which the guns Nearly every man held a spear, many were to be stationed had already been carried a dagger (kris) as well, and not cut through the forest. The line was a few showed a waist-belt loaded with broad enough to afford a fair shot, and an assortment of weapons that would had been more or less cleared of uudernot have disgraced the most piratical growth and obstacles. For the benefit of marauders. The spears showed that of those who do not know, I may say a tiger-drive was contemplated, for that such a line is not, or should not across each, some eighteen inches be- be, a straight one; for if the guns are low the point, a little piece of wood all in the same straight line each man was lashed on at right angles to the stands an excellent chance of being shaft. This cross-bar is intended to pre- shot by his neighbors in the excitement vent a wounded tiger from clawing its of the moment. way up the spear-head that transfixes The party consisted of nine guns, six it to the man that holds the spear. Europeans and three Malay rajahs, and Such men as owned, or had been able for each there had been erected in a to borrow, a small dagger of a peculiar tree a small platform made of lopped shape known as a golok rembau, exhib- branches bound together with green ited their weapons with complacency rattans and screened with leafy boughs. and pride, for these daggers are sup- The object of the platform is partly to posed by the Malays to possess such keep the shooter safe above any dan. extraordinary, even magical, properties ger from the tiger, but partly also to that a tiger is powerless against them. enable him to obtain the best possible

When the local chief announced that view of the ground and to prevent the everything was ready, an old pawang, tiger from scenting him. or sorcerer, stepped forward with a As soon as we had scrambled into bunch of twigs of a tree for which a our individual platforms, the Malays tiger is thought to have a peculiar who had been our guides swarmed up dread. Holding this small bundle in adjacent trees, and, having first made both hands, he repeated over it the sure that they had not intruded upon a charm known as "that which closes the nest of the great vicious red ants, se tiger's mouth," and then, after another lected comfortable perches from wbich incantation which was intended to pre- to await the result of the drive. The vent the tiger from winding us, pro- beaters formed into line at a place ceeded to break the twigs into short some two or three miles away from the fragments, which he distributed first posts taken up by the guns. The foramong the shooters and then among est that they had to beat out was a the beaters. The ceremony did not strip comparatively narrow in proportake long, but by the time it was over, tion to its length, lying between a Gov. and the final words of advice, ex- ernment bridle-path on the one side and hortation, and command had been said

a deep swamp on the other.

It was on every side, the sun was strong most unlikely that the tiger would enough to make the shade welcome, attempt to break out at the sides of the and without further delay the old chief ground, and therefore no stops were led his picturesque throng of beaters posted. down one path, while we set off along We had not been long in our places a track that took us into another part when the preconcerted signal of a shot of the forest.

announced that the drive had begun. The direction that the drive was to It would, however, be another two take had been decided upon some days hours at least before the men would

arrive at the line of guns, for beating tive that, since it was not in the ground in dense forest, if thoroughly carried which they had just covered, it must out, is very slow work. Deep silence be lying up in a smaller strip of forest. reigned through the part of the forest between the bridle-path and the Perak. in which we were, a silence enhanced River. by the faint distant sounds of the oc- After some short deliberation and casional war-cry of the advancing Ma- argument, they went off without lays. A peacock-pheasant, whose per- further delay to drive, and we stasistent scolding clatter, not unlike the tioned ourselves at intervals through note of a cackling barndoor hen, bad the forest. There was no time to clear warned every animal within hearing any lines, nor to erect platforms in the of our arrival, ceased its clamor at last, trees. We took up positions on foot, and recommenced its scratching among arranging ourselves in such order as. the fallen leaves. Two little birds,- we could, and each man knew, though the male, a brilliant black with a he could not see, the situation of his. golden crown, and his mate, a sober neighbors on either side. At the place russet brown-resumed the labor of where the beaters formed into line, thefeeding their speckled nestlings.

A re

bridle-path was about a mile from the splendent ground-thrush, gorgeous as a river, while at the point where the salmon-fly, which on our approach had guns were stationed, about a mile fur. hidden under some fallen leaves, re- ther up stream, river and path were gained its confidence, and came hopping within three hundred yards of one anout to continue its search for food. other. The ground to be beaten was. The life of every animal seemed to be thus a triangle; the beaters were at its. a silent one. In the distance, it is base, and the guns at the apex. Behind true, a great rhinoceros-hornbill called the line of guns, river and path difrom a tree-top to a mate afar off, and verged again, and between them lay a high over head, hidden in the blinding vast expanse of dense, heavily timbered blue sky, a kite uttered at intervals forest for which it was thought that its shrill querulous whistle. But these the tiger would make. We had not were the exceptions; at all hours and at been long in our places before the all seasons the silence of the animals is beaters began to advance towards us. one with the silence of the forest. I studied the lie of the forest in my

During the whole of the drive no ani- vicinity and the approaches by which mal larger than a mouse-deer appeared an animal would be likely to come in within sight of my platform; and, when my direction, and then fell to watching finally the line of beaters reached the an interminable string of little black guns, we found that the drive was a ants at my feet. They were migratblank. Some sambhur and barking ing, but I could not see whence they deers had been seen by the other guns, came or whither they were going. The but, since a tiger was our object, no line that they followed was extraordione had fired at them.

narily devious; up one side and down The Malays were not only disap- the other of a tree-stump, round three pointed but much surprised at the fail- sides of a great boulder, over and ure of the drive. Day after day, and along the roots, under a fallen log, the night after night, the tiger had been black line twisted and turned. There heard roaring in the area through seemed to be no attempt to shorten or which they had just beaten, and they to improve upon the winding path secould not understand why not a sign lected by the leaders of the column. of it had been seen. They were posi- The little creatures moved in a line

an

some six or seven deep, and for some have more than once heard a sudden reason, which it was difficult to dis- vibrating roar in reply to a cry of cern,

a constant succession of ants selawat, that has made the blood of the kept hurrying back through the ranks listeners run warm; and not a few to communicate with the rear.

Malays have been struck down with Suddenly there was a cry afar off: the expression of their faith upon their "Look out! The tiger is here!” How lips. Apart from its religious aspect, every feeling intensified at the sound! the use of the selawat is to enable the Not a soul was within sight, but one men to know whereabouts in the denseknew that the men who were hidden ness and tangle of the forest underto rigbt and to left had heard the words growth the animal is hidden. and had thrilled to them no less than On this occasion there was no reply oneself. The beaters were yet more to the long-drawn Allah, and after a than half a mile away, but it was not pause, during which each man assured difficult to imagine the excitement that himself of his position with regard to possessed them. Somewhere in the his neighbors, the array of beaters area encompassed by them and by the slowly and carefully moved forward. guns there was moving silently through At intervals the piercing war-cry of the the dense forest undergrowth the lithe Malays rose and rang up and down the powerful form of a tiger. We all knew line. Occasionally order was it; it even seemed strange that the long shouted to close in on the right or to string of ants should fail to know it move up faster on the left, but otherand should continue their unheeding wise the advance was made in greater ceaseless hurrying. Somewhere near silence than might have been expected. us the tiger was, or should be.

The men worked out the thickets with At the shout the men steadied them- their spear-heads, and rapped their selves, moving to one side or the other spear-butts upon the tree-trunks with in order to make the line of advance as a steadiness and thoroughness that perfect as possible. There was silence would have been creditable in any for a moment, and then a great voice pheasant-covert in England. They shouted, “Selawat (prayer)." "Selawat," were, I may say, an exceptionally fine shouted every one,

and th eupoi set of men: The ays of Saiong are somewhere in the long line, one of the famous throughout Perak for their skill men chanted aloud some verses of the and daring in a tiger-drive; and on this Koran, concluding by shouting at the occasion they were under the eye both top of his voice the words of the creed of their Sultan's son and of the Districtof Islam: "La' ila’hu illa 'llahu; wa Officer. Muhammedu 'r-rasulu 'lláhi. (There is Before long the cry arose again, no god but Allah, and Mahommed is "Here he is! Here he is!" Upon this the prophet of Allah);" and from every the old chief in charge of the drive voice in the long array that was hidden shouted an order. “Tahan, tahan! up and down the forest came the roar (Steady, hold steady!).” Down on of the response of the final Allah. If a knee dropped every man of the two tiger is suddenly disturbed when lying hundred that composed the line. Close up beside an animal that it has killed, to his side each man gripped his spear, or has cubs, or is wounded, or is for with its point thrust upwards into the any other reason savage, it often gives dark forest undergrowth in front of utterance to an answering challenge him. It was impossible to see the which it not infrequently follows up by plainest object at a distance of more charging forthwith upon the men. I than twenty yards, and a tiger might

a