Tigress

“ From having been a beautiful ornament to the society which she adorned she has become a man-eating tigress to prey upon it; a parasite to cling to it, to grow and fatten upon it, and ultimately to smother and destroy the creatures who will afford her sustenance. The woman has gone out of her, Nick; the tigress has got inside. ”

“ The exhibition of these two animals concluded by the lion lying down on his side, when the keeper stretched himself to his whole length upon him, and then calling to the tigress she jumped upon the man, extended herself with her paws upon his shoulders, placed her face sideways upon his, and the whole three lay quiescent till the keeper suddenly slipped himself off the lion’s side, with the tigress on him, and the trio gambolled and rolled about on the floor of the den, like playful children on the floor of a nursery. ”

“ Is it possible that the same tremendous hand which painted the royal tigress, at length cowed by the aspect of another world, has drawn, with a pencil of air, this lovely and inexpressibly soft scene, where the perfume of a balmy atmosphere is fresh and soothing on your forehead, and in your nostril, and where the eye as well as the smell and ear (for I can hear the breeze murmur among the green branches, and the screams of joy uttered by those temple-haunting birds as they chase each other down the air,) is filled with delight. ”

“ But the dragon was there before him.
"Let him go, mamma," said the tigress as she closed the window. "We shall only have a rumpus."
"That will be all," said Johnny. "There isn't the slightest use in your trying to keep me here."
"And are we never to see you again?" said the tigress, almost languishing again with one eye.
"Well; no. What would be the use? No man likes to be shut in, you know."
"Go then," said the tigress; "but if you think that this is to be the end of it, you'll find yourself wonderfully mistaken. You poor false, drivelling creature! ”

“ He had found the lair of the wounded tigress and her young. For fully two minutes Skag stood quiet before her, working softly—her hiss changing at slow intervals to the cavernous growl. The kittens were too young to organise attack—the tigress was too maimed for resistance, even though at bay in lair with her kittens to defend. ”

“ Pinning him with the sheer weight of her vigorous young body—covering him as Nature teaches a tigress to cover her menaced cub, whilst their ears were deafened with the appalling detonation, the solid earth heaved and billowed under their prone, locked bodies, and the air surged and winnowed about them as though beaten by the passage of huge invisible wings. ”

“ When Captain Forsyth stood behind a tree on a sultry summer morning, and saw the tigress step softly through the long jungle grass, and the affrighted monkeys swing chattering overhead, there must have come upon him that sensation of awe which alone makes courage possible. ”

“ Directly in front, retreating slowly, with stealthy, prowling, crawling steps, and an occasional short, quick leap or bound to one side or the other, was a magnificent tigress, looking the very personification of baffled fury. Ever and anon she crouched down to the earth, tore up the sand with her claws, lashed her tail from side to side, and with lips retracted, long moustaches quivering with wrath, and hateful eyes scintillating with rage and fury, she seemed to meditate an attack on the angry buffaloes. ”

“ Their manifestation is not only in man but in animals, not only in animals but in the smallest worms. The tigress that plunges her fangs into the warm blood of a human being would give up her own life to protect her young. ”

“ I'm not fitted for civilization. I prefer the real savage to the counterfeit. I infinitely prefer the original tigress with her stripes to the reincarnated creature with her soft hands and her rose-leaf cheeks. ”

“ Again she rose to her leap, her eyes blazing madly, her mouth opened to its fullest extent, showing her huge fangs, and the repeaters crackled as a rapid fire was poured into her in hopes of checking her rush, for a wounded tigress is the most savage and dangerous beast in the jungle. ”

“ The mahout, who was a splendid fellow, perceived this in an instant, and driving his elephant a few paces forward, he turned his head to the right, giving me a beautiful clear sight of the tigress, bounding at full speed about 80 paces distant along the clean surface of parched herbage, up a slight incline. ”

“ Further, there is marked individuality among tigers. One will lie in water all day, and never venture forth till the sun has sunk behind the western hills; another prowls boldly by day. Some prey on forest beasts—chiefly the spotted cheetah and sambur-stag; others, again, mark out domestic animals. And last comes the tigress with clamorous cubs, who suddenly learns by accident or impulse that man, hitherto so feared, is in reality the easiest prey of all. ”

“ In my cavern what rent carcasses—La Goualeuse—the brother of this widow—a small child, Louise's baby,—these are the carcasses, and my tigress Cecily will have her share." Then looking at his torn fingers, the nails of which had grown immensely during his illness, he added, in broken language, "Oh, my sharp nails—sharp and keen! An old tiger I am, but agile, strong, and bold; no one dares dispute my tigress Cecily with me. ”

“ The tigress is generally in advance of the male during a drive, should there be two together; this should not be forgotten, and a sharp look-out should be directed upon the place from whence the tigress shall have emerged, as the shot must be taken at the rearmost animal, who would otherwise disappear immediately, and break back at the sound of the explosion. In all cases it is incumbent upon the watcher to study attentively every feature of the ground directly that he enters upon his post, so that he may be prepared for every eventuality ”

“ Once upon a time a cow and a tigress lived in a jungle and were great friends, they were never separated. Now in those days tigers did not eat flesh, but grazed like cattle, so the tigress never thought of doing any harm to her friend the cow. The tigress had given birth to two men children who were growing up fine and sturdy lads. One afternoon the cow and the tigress went down to a stream to drink, the cow went into the stream and drank and the tigress drank lower down. ”

“ The Tigress differs from the Tiger; the head, as well as the whole body, is smaller and narrower. The neck is lighter, and is devoid of any crest, which, though very much smaller than the voluminous mane of the Lion, undoubtedly exists in large and old males. The Tigress is lither, more active, and when accompanied by her offspring, far more savage and bloodthirsty than the male ”

“ The tigress goes with young for about fifteen weeks, and produces from two to five at a birth. I remember once seeing four perfectly formed cubs, which would have been born in a day or two, cut from a tigress shot by my brother-in-law Col. W. B. Thomson in the hills adjoining the station of Seonee. I had got off an elephant, and, running up the glen on hearing the shots, came unpleasantly close to her in her dying throes. When about to bring forth, the tigress avoids the male, and hides her young from him. The native shikaris say that the tiger kills the young ones if he finds them. ”

“ So hammer, hammer, hammer, cut succeeding cut, the little Burmese maiden killed the tigress.
Grain-of-Gold was the only other person near. She always said, and says still (1909) , that she did nothing but look on. The village headman reported, and still reports, that the animal, which was shown to everybody in 1894, was a full-grown tigress in the prime of life, measuring “8 cubits and 2 meiks.” A cubit, in rough village measures, is still the original cubit, from the elbow to the farthest finger-tip, and a “meik” is the width of a clenched fist with the thumb standing out. ”

“ He bids the young man fly in search of food, but while he is gone he reflects that it may be too late when he returns, and to save the mother from the dreadful crime of killing her children, and the little ones from the teeth of their famished mother, he flings himself down the precipice. Hearing the noise, and curious as to what it might mean, the tigress is turned from the thought of killing her young ones, and on looking round she sees the body of the saint and devours it. ”

“ Under her curved black lashes her eyes turned momentarily, glancing at Desmond. Those eyes were such as have never been bestowed by the gods upon woman save as a scourge to man. They possessed the hue seen in the eyes of a tigress, yet they could be as voluptuously soft as the shadows of some dim lagoon. ”

“ Just at this time the qarāwulān (shikaris) brought in news of a tigress. Though it is an established custom of mine only to hunt male tigers, yet, in consideration that no other tiger might be obtained before his departure, I went for the tigress. I took with me Karan, and said to him that I would hit it wherever he wished me to do so. After this arrangement I went to the place where they had [287] marked down the tiger. By chance there was a wind and disturbance in the air, and the female elephant on which I was mounted was terrified of the tigress and would not stand still. ”

“ CXI. The Tiger Cub and the Calf.
A Tigress and a Cow used to graze in a dense jungle, and they were both with young. They became great friends and agreed that they would marry their [321] children to each other. In the course of time the tigress gave birth to a she-cub and the cow to a bull-calf. They kept the young ones in the same place and used to go and graze together, and then return at the same time to suckle their young. On their way back they used to drink at a certain river, the tigress up the stream and the cow lower down. ”

“ Looking upon a trail that goes straight towards the water, which other creatures approach so differently, one sees how the animal that left those footprints—nearly square in the male, oval in case of a tigress—felt no fear of any adversary, and therefore must have been of considerable bulk. Not only the best authorities, so far as formal zoölogy is concerned, but almost every one who has devoted special attention to this subject, gives the length of an average tiger, when fully developed, at about nine feet six inches from tip to tip. ”

“ Then the Prince jumped off his horse and looked at the tiger's foot. Then he pulled out the thorn and bound some healing leaves over the wound with a piece of cloth which he tore off his turban.
Just as he was ready to mount his horse again, a tigress came crashing through the jungle.
"How nice!" she cried. "Here is a man and we can eat him."
"No, indeed," replied her husband. "He has been very good to me. He has taken a thorn out of my foot and I am grateful to him. If he wants help at any time, we must give it to him." ”

“ He kept watch for several days and discovered that the tigress had little cubs. All tigers are suspicious and watchful especially when they have young ones and seldom leave them alone for any length of time. ”

“ The den consisted of two compartments. At last the keeper contrived to entice the tiger to the inner one, when he closed the slide, and the seaman was liberated.
Great is the danger of associating with those of bad morals—pleasant and friendly as they may seem.
The Tigress and her Young.
The tigress generally takes much less care of her young than does the lioness of her whelps. Occasionally, however, she shows the same maternal affection.
Two young tiger cubs had been found by some villagers, while their mother had been ranging in quest of prey. ”

“ A tigress robb'd of young, a lioness, Or any interesting beast of prey, Are similes at hand for the distress Of ladies who can not have their own way; ”

“ The lion’s roar is, of course, unapproachable in its grandeur, but the tiger compresses into a cough and a yawn such an infinity of cruelty and rage, such unfathomable depths of fierce wild-beast nature as cannot be matched in forest languages.
Man-eating tigers and, even more, man-eating tigresses have always commanded among human beings a certain awful respect. ”

“ The prince stayed with the old people and worked on their land. One day as he was ploughing, the tigress came and killed one of the bullocks that were drawing the plough. The prince at once ran to the house to fetch his bow and arrow that he might kill the tigress. When he returned, he found that several tigers were sucking the blood of the bullock and with them a wild boar. He shot an arrow which wounded the boar. The boar maddened by the pain turned on the tigers and killed them all; including the tigress which had killed the Rājā’s sons. ”

“ But even without that source of confusion to the sight a tiger is extremely difficult to see, as difficult as a hare in a ploughed field, or perhaps more so. On one occasion Rama Gouda said to me, when we were attacking a wounded tiger, or rather tigress in the jungle, "There is the tiger." ”

“ The first litter of these extraordinary animals were presented to Our Most Gracious Sovereign, when he was pleased to express considerable gratification, and to denominate them Lion-Tigers, than which a more appropriate name could not have been given. The great interest the Lion and Tigress have excited is unprecedented; they are a source of irresistible attraction, especially as it is the only instance of the kind ever known of animals so directly opposite in their dispositions [Pg 305] forming an attachment of such a singular nature ”

“ When the two animals were still again, we could distinctly see the cow standing up with her neck embraced by the Tigress, who was evidently sucking her jugular; the poor cow made a few feeble efforts to release herself, which the Tigress resented by breaking her neck."
What induces a Tiger to prey on human beings? Some affirm that it is only when age overtakes the animal and he finds himself unable to cope with his ordinary victims, Deer or cattle, that he falls upon man ”