strong walls of the cage, in which he frequently
succeeds. The tiger, soon convinced of the superior
strength of his antagonist, endeavours to
avoid him, and when he cannot do so, springs insidiously
upon his head and neck. In the first
combat of this nature to which I was witness, the
buffalo, at the very first effort, broke his antagonist
s ribs against the cage, and he dropped down
dead. The buffalo is not always so fortunate. I
have seen a powerful tiger hold him down, thrown
upon his knees, for many seconds ; and in a few
instances, he is so tom with wounds that he must
be withdrawn, and a fresh one introduced. In nineteen
cases out of twenty, however, the buffalo is the
victor. After the first onset, there is little satisfaction
in the combat; for the animals, having experienced
each other’s strength and ferocity, are
reluctant to engage, and the practices used to goad
them to a renewal of the fight are abominable. The
tiger is roused by firebrands and boiling water, and
the buffalo, by pouring upon his hide a potent infusion
of capsicums, and by the application of a most
poisonous nettle, ( kamadu,J a single touch of which
would throw the strongest human frame into a fever.
Wild hogs, which are in vast abundance in Java,
are ensnared and fought against rams and goats, a
ludicrous, but bloodless combat. The wild boar
of Java is an animal of little ferocity, and not much
strength.
A combat between two bulls, such as the people
of Butan, and other countries to the north of Bengal,
* delight in, is a favourite exhibition among
some of the people of the island of Madura. I
have not heard that it is practised elsewhere.
Of games of exercise or amusement, displaying
address or agility, the Indian islanders are not
fond, and never excel in them. In all their exercises
they would rather sit than stand, even where
there is an obyious advantage in the latter position.
If, for example, a chief amuses himself with the
exercise of the bow and arrow, it is always sitting,
and not standing, that he takes the diversion. A
kind of foot-ball, called separaga, is played by most
of the tribes, but is not a favourite pastime.
When the monarch in Java, according to the
custom of the east, shows himself once a week to
his subjects, or the governors of provinces, in
imitation of him, to their dependents, a kind of
awkward tilts are exhibited. The Javanese are bad
riders j their horses are clumsily, and badly, though
often gorgeously caparisoned, and are too small in
size to possess the strength and action necessary to
make a fine display in a tournament. These Lilliputian
justs, therefore, are a mock upon military
exercises.
AM the civilized nations of the Archipelago have
T e sh loU m . AC' 0Unt ^ " ,he C° “B o f " ‘«