A Roadside Shrine by the Rice-fields.

HUNTING THE CAVE-DWELLING OF

By J. C. GREW

photographs by the author

LONG the coast of China, midway whereas in the excitement is gener- between Hongkong and Shanghai, ally over in a few seconds, in the cave A there lies a tract of country quite shooting a sportsman is frequently kept devoid of any growth, where the barren at the highest tension for several hours, hills which roll back from the sea to the having located the game and while still rice-cultivated valleys inland are strewn uncertain as to whether it will charge out with the gigantic boulders of some pre- before being successfully blocked. historic glacial moraine, and it is in the I had had my fill of the jungle. Rains; numberless caves and subterranean pas- flies, and eventually fever, had convinced sages formed by these great confused me that tiger-shooting in the tropics had masses of rock that the sole wild occupant its distinct disadvantages and had made of the country, the Chinese tiger, finds his me wish for a healthful country and a lair. Accordingly, the sport of tiger- respectable atmosphere, where one could shooting is here quite a different proposi- enjoy living and shooting at one and the tion from that in India and other tropical same time—a paradox in the jungle. I countries, where the methods of shooting was unwilling to return without a tiger— are adapted to the jungle, viz.: from the glowing tales were told of this cave dis- backs of elephants, on foot on a jungle trict; here, then, was the very thing, and I path, or from platforms in trees—by driv- started forthwith. ing, beating or sitting up over a kill. Here It was with the keenest anticipation that in China the animal must be tracked to I finally found myself rolling down the his cave, and if found in such a position coast of China on the little “Haitan.” that he cannot be driven out to the gun, he The old Scotch engineer told me stories, must be blocked in so that the sportsman over our pipes and coffee in the evening, can enter with comparative safety. Thus, of lighthouse keepers along the shore The Huntermen with Goats, Torches and Spears. the Cave-Dwelling Tiger of China 739 watching the play at night on the walk into the tiger's den with only their beach below, and of natives carried away torches to scare him and their spears to from the rice fields within shouting dis- stop a charge. Their weapons, however, tance of their very villages, which made looked sufficiently business-like, for each me feel that at last I was in for some sport. carried a sort of trident with three iron So, though alone, except for my old Sing- prongs and a heavy wooden shaft. They halese servant, Thomas, who had shared carried with them also in a small basket, with me many adventures, I was not at all an exact representation in miniature of loath the next morning to take my last themselves—a little Chinaman who held look at a white man, transfer self, goods in his hand the typical trident, and in the and chattels to the care of a yellow pirate sand which filled the basket about him, in a dilapidated junk, and set sail for the were burning joss sticks. This, I dis- shore. covered, was their idol, whom they wor- That evening I found myself in a snug shipped fervently and regularly, and never little village, tucked away at the foot of the in our subsequent hunting were they with- hills, with the flooded pâdi fields skirting out him, for, as they told me, it was he it on one side and to the west a pagoda who gave them the courage to hunt and crowned mountain, towering like a sentinel strength to fight the tiger. My interpreter, above—far too peaceful a scene to suggest a young Chinaman named Lim Ek Hui, the sport on which I had come. As the who proved invaluable in communicating guest of the village, in that I was to do my their instructions and a most interesting little best in ridding them of a pest, I was companion in discussing things Chinese led up the central path through a staring during the long, lonely evenings, then ar- and wondering crowd of peasants—who ranged between us the rate of wages, after were seldom privileged to gaze on a white which being decided satisfactorily, we man, and had no modesty about showing repaired to our respective suppers—I, to it—among innumerable black hogs, en- the great delight of the admiring throng joying continuous and undisturbed slum- in the courtyard, to knife, fork and plate, ber along the highway, and past the rude they to their chow-bowls and chop-sticks. hovels, within which hens, babies and The ten Chinamen who were to share my dogs sprawled promiscuously. We came, temple then stretched themselves in at the end of the village, to a remarkable various positions about the floor, lit their looking building—a sort of large shed opium lamps and smoked themselves into with arched roof and paved floor, with one oblivion, the interior quickly becoming side opening to a courtyard flanked by a filled with the pungent and not unpleasant ten-foot wall, which, though ordinarily a odor of the drug. Thomas found a posi- temple sacred to the common ancestor of tion at the other end of the temple, as far the village, was now, I learned, to be my removed as possible from the Chinamen, habitation for as long as I cared to remain. while I repaired to my bale of straw, and It proved on inspection to be a very filthy having placed my loaded revolver under lodging; much debris had to be swept the pillow, more from habit than caution, from the floor, and several huge, black was quickly asleep amid these novel sur- spiders driven away before I could make roundings. up my mind that it was at all habitable. At dawn the courtyard was filled with A pile of straw was then shaken down in a the same admiring crowd of the night be- corner for a bed, and my dressing arti- fore—men, women and children—who cles spread on the altar, after which the watched the processes of bathing, dressing seven Chinese huntermen, who were to and eating breakfast much as we might be my escort from now on, presented them- observe the wild man of Borneo taking selves. dinner at the dime museum. This was They stood grinning in a row, their embarrassing and became, before many almond-shaped eyes slanting upwards, days, extremely irritating, though I was their yellow skins burnt to bronze from not in a position to resent. The hunter- work in the rice fields and wrinkled like men had procured long, slender bamboo old parchment. With one exception they poles, and were winding strips of cloth were under five feet—hardly the imposing about their tips, these latter being dipped individuals I had pictured, who were to in oil and serving as torches to light up the Where the Cave-dwelling Tiger Lives—My Huntermen just Entering a Cave. The Village and the Rice-fields, and in the Distance the Hills where the Tigers Live. interior of the caves which we explored. the express, but in case of emergency Then after chow, we started out in single invariably took another heavy gun when file, I following the head hunterman, quite after dangerous game. This gun, which ignorant as to where or into what he would was a double 10-bore, I gave to Lim, lead me. loaded but uncocked, and stationing him Knowing the lie of the land, they had no behind me on a suitable rock a few yards hesitation in choosing at once the most from the cave opening, awaited results. likely caves to explore; a tramp of some Probably few forms of sport afford four miles brought us up into the rocky hills greater excitement than that of watching and here at last, with the openings of caves the opening of a cave, knowing that at and passages all about us, I felt the first any second one or more tigers may charge pleasant promptings of caution which out and aware that if they do, one must come when one knows dangerous game shoot both instantly and accurately. may be near. The huntermen soon Under such circumstances an ordinary stopped above a cave which led directly hole in the hillside becomes a distinctly down into the earth, while one of them led fascinating object, as one who has had the me a few yards down the hillside to station experience must realize. But I was not me at the mouth of another opening below, to have success on this hunt nor, indeed, Lim translating that they were to move for many days to come, for the smoke of through the passage and drive the tiger, the torches appearing through the fissures if he were there, down to the exit which I in the rock and the sound of the spears guarded. They quickly oiled their torches, feeling about near the exit, told that the shed their great umbrella hats, and men had passed through the passage. We dropped one by one out of sight into the explored several other caves before return- hole. ing to the village, but to no purpose. Lim had had scruples about accom- In the afternoon the men informed me panying me on the hunt, but protests that that this wholesale exploration of caves he was indispensable and assurances of was a poor thing, since, if a tiger should perfect safety had overruled them; he was happen to come to one of them later, the necessary not only to interpret instructions smell of the torches would prevent his but to hold my extra gun and pass it to me, entering and he would doubtless move to should the two barrels of the .450 cordite- some other part of the country. The powder express prove ineffectual. I had animals are continually roaming about fair confidence in the stopping power of and may appear in a certain district at any The Result of the Hunt.. Hunting the Cave-Dwelling Tiger of China 743 time, so that there is nothing to do but they told through my interpreter, over wait. Accordingly in the evening I pur- their opium pipes in the evenings, of ad- chased from a shepherd six small goats ventures and hairbreadth escapes. and placed them around the country This village, as, do all the small towns within ‘a radius of a mile or so, mooring of the district, regarded itself as one large each before the opening of some promising family, being descended from the common cave, and as we returned to camp we could ancestor to whose memory my temple was hear their cries coming apparently from built, and so closely do they adhere to this all directions. Should a tiger arrive with- idea, that intermarriage is forbidden and in reach of that sound we would certainly a man must choose his wife from else- have something to work on. where. They are a simple, trusting lot The next week was a monotonous one. and have great faith in the medicinal Each evening we moored the goats and powers of a white man. One morning a each morning at sunrise brought them woman stalked into my temple on her back untouched to the village; these were diminutive feet and pulled me by the the only events of the long, hot days. sleeve to. her house near by. Her hus- Occasionally. I crossed the hills to the band was lying groaning on his straw bed shore and had a swim, or a sail in some and wooden pillow, having fallen out of a fisherman’s junk, but most of my time was tree and evidently hurt his spine. It was spent under a tree behind the village, clear that nothing more could be done where with a pillow, a pipe and a book, I than to ease the pain, so I ordered hot did my best to make the days seem shorter. water applied and rubbed some salve on The village life was that of the peaceful the injured spot. The next morning the peasants of any country; at sunrise the woman returned and thanked me pro- men put on their great pagoda hats and fusely, saying that the pain had ceased. trudged off to the rice-fields, where they Later I was called in to see a fever patient worked knee-deep in water till dark. The and gave him a few grains of quinine, women remained in their huts spinning, for which he appeared in person to thank or chatted on the paths, while their babies me the next morning, evidently quite re- made mud-pies and played with the hogs. stored to health, more by the mental than Then at sunset, when the men returned by any physical good done him. from work, my courtyard became the These were the peaceful surroundings gathering place for the evening, for the in which I found myself, and watched the novelty of watching a white man eat, days pass slowly by, until the first event smoke and read, did not in any wise seem occurred which told that game had ar- to pall upon them. The huntermen were rived at last and roused all my energies next in importance and, always held an to bring the hunt to a successful close as admiring circle about them as they squatted speedily as possible. over their chow. This was a sort of soup, I was awakened at one or two o’clock brewed in a big black kettle, into which in the morning by the loud barking of a any number of ingredients, from shell- dog, which was immediately taken up by fish to sweet potatoes, had been thrown, all the other dogs in the village. This and eaten with some kind of herb on the was unusual, as seldom anything disturbed side as a relish. Tiger hunting is nothing the silence of the town at night, and I was new to them, as they make it their business, wondering vaguely what could be the the profession being handed down in the matter, when the men in the temple were same family from father to son. They all on their feet, some running for their attack the tiger in his cave, killing him spears, and others to get my gun out of its with their spears, and selling the meat, case. In a minute we were out in the bones, claws and skin at a high price, as village street in the moonlight, where the the natives believe the possession of the dogs were bolting up and down, barking claws or the eating of the meat gives them furiously and evidently much disturbed strength and bravery. The men are un- at something; though the cause was not doubtedly courageous as notwithstanding apparent. And just then I distinctly saw, the fact that some of them are killed from off in the rice-fields, a shadowy form sneak- time to time, they walk into the caves with- ing away—a dog, perhaps, or a pig, out hesitation, and many were the stories though it looked like something larger— 744 Hunting the Cave-Dwelling Tiger of China and though my first impulse was to follow, and preparing the torches in a way which I saw at once that it was useless. The looked like business. Lim himself was barking of the curs soon subsided and we so excited that he could hardly translate, returned to the temple. but I finally quieted him enough to learn In the morning great excitement pre- the news; all five remaining goats, includ- vailed in the courtyard; the whole village ing the one over which I had sat up, had had apparently gathered there and were been killed, the country around was talking and gesticulating violently. Lim covered with blood tracks, and only one translated that a dog had been taken away body and one head had been found. I in the night, and that a tiger was un- endeavored vainly to repress a war-whoop. doubtedly about. The huntermen had The preparations which ensued were meanwhile gone out to inspect the goats, such as would have convinced an observer and returned with the news that one had that the village was about to make a sally vanished, the rope being parted clean and against a hostile tribe—the villagers the animal completely disappeared with- sharpening their knives to cut down the out a sign of blood. I was on the spot bushes should the tiger have to be blocked immediately and found the report true, in his cave, the huntermen arranging the with no vestige of any track to work on. torches and getting the oil, and the sports- There was nothing to do. To smoke up man making sure for the fifteenth time the caves by exploring them was clearly that his gun barrels were spotless and his unadvisable, so we returned to wait in cartridges in pockets quickly accessible. patience till nightfall. The anticipation At eight we were on the spot where I of sport near at hand, made that day seem had kept watch the night before. The endless. The morning blazed wearily till string which tied the goat had been torn tiffin* time, and the afternoon hours off short and at a distance of ten yards dragged till evening. Then, finally, the was the head of the animal, torn roughly sun sank and by seven o’clock I had the from the body. The men then brought remaining four goats at their posts and, up for my inspection the body of still as nothing more could be done, prepared another goat, untouched except for two to sit up over the fifth, which was the loud- distinct teeth marks in the neck, made as est bleater, in the hopes that the tiger cleanly as though by a vampire. This would pick him out for his night’s kill. was excellent news, for the tiger had We found, some five yards from the clearly killed more than he could eat, goat, a suitable rock, which shaded us and must have retired for the day to some from the moonlight, and waited, the ani- cave nearby to sleep off his gorge. But mal crying lustily and being answered actually to track him to his lair was no continually by one of the others which was easy work, for the trails of blood which within call. The first hour or two of this led in several directions were quickly lost sitting up was not had, but eventually in the low scrub, and in a few minutes we one’s eyes become strained from peering had to abandon the idea. To search all through the moonlight, and with the help the large caves in the vicinity and trust of a sharpened imagination, picture a to fortune to find him seemed the only moving form in every rock and shadow; thing to be done. so before midnight I found myself in- Then followed a scene which, under the voluntarily starting at every new shape circumstances, was thoroughly amusing, on which my gaze fell. The goat had by though at that time I was too impatient this time quited down and the huntermen at the delay to appreciate it. The hunter- were fidgeting, so it seemed better to give men set the idol, which, as I have said, it up, and silently and in single file we they invariably carried with them while covered the three miles to the village. hunting, on a rock, and gathering about But the discouragement of the even- it they lighted joss-sticks and proceeded ing was not to last. The men had gone to worship in the usual manner, clasping out for the goats at sunrise, and I was their hands, waving the joss-sticks three awakened on their return by a tremendous times up and down, and then placing them clamor; they were all shouting at once, in the sand about the image. They then running about the temple for their spears, asked the idol if the tiger was in a certain * Luncheon. cave which opened within a hundred yards Hunting the Cave-Dwelling Tiger of China 745 of us, at the same time throwing up two reassuring, but knowing that the men were pieces of wood, each with a smooth and a quite trustworthy, and would not send me rough side. Should they come down even, into a risky position, I scrambled quickly the answer would be affirmative; if odd, in, dragging the express behind, as I was negative. Mirabile dictu, the reply was too cramped to carry it with me. “yes.” The men immediately picked up One of the men held his spear ahead of their spears and ran down hill to the cave, me in the passage, though he himself stood which, like most of them, was formed of behind. I crawled slowly in for some ten immense boulders, opening by a crevice feet; it was quite dark and I was ignorant leading straight downward. Then, sta- as to where the animal was, or how the tioning me at its mouth with warnings to passage ended. Then there was a loud be ready, they entered. snarl within a few feet of my face, and I Five minutes passed. A hunter reap- knew by the sound that the tiger was in peared and said something which caused another cavern opening off mine. My the crowd of villagers who had approached eyes were now becoming used to the dark- with us to scramble back up the hillside; ness, and by the light of the torches which Lim’s eyes bulged as he whispered ex- had been thrust into the tiger’s cavern citedly: “Get ready, Master, tiger inside.” from underneath, I could see him in full. The sport was now on in earnest. He lay on a ledge of rock, facing me, his Bulletins were announced at regular green eyes shining and blinking sleepily intervals from below; at first they could in the light, his great striped back moving see but one paw of the animal, then he up and down as he panted from fright and moved and showed himself in full—“very anger. His face was not four feet from large tiger,” Lim translated. They were mine when I had come to the end of the trying to drive him out; he might charge passage, but there was little danger, since from any one of three openings, and I was he was too much cowed by the light to to watch them all carefully, for it would charge, and had he done so, my opening be quick shooting. A half hour passed. was too small for him to enter. I lay a full Then came up the announcement that he five minutes watching him. At the end of had got into a small passage and could not that time I moved the express slowly into be driven out; they would block him in, position, being badly cramped; the tiger after which I must enter. The villagers im- snarled angrily as he saw the barrel ap- mediately set to work gathering bushes, proaching him and drew back restlessly, which they bound together and threw still roaring. This was not pleasant to down to the opening, while the hunters hear. I then fired, without being able to came to the mouth and dragged them in. see the sights, but trusting to hit a vital They worked quickly and quietly, but with spot. He gave a few leaps—lay panting— a subdued excitement which kept my and after two more shots, was still. interest at highest pitch. My finger was Once in the opening again, I realized on the trigger for four hours, nor did I dare for the first time at what high tension my take my eyes from the openings, for the nerves had been kept during the four hours men had cautioned me that until finally of watching, and with the strain over came blocked, the tiger might charge out at any the natural reaction. In another hour moment. we had dragged the tiger up to the mouth It was past midday when the seven men of the cave, photographed him and then emerged and beckoned me to enter. I carried him, suspended from a pole, to the slipped down into the crevice, landing in a village, while the peasants ran alongside, sort of small chamber which was partially laughing, shouting and showing their lighted by torches, though my eyes, just delight generally. The occasion was all from the sunlight, could not see where it that could be desired. I skinned the body led. They led me to one side and pointed on a large flat rock in the village, found to a narrow shelf or ledge, from which an to my satisfaction that it measured ten opening seemed to lead straight into the feet six inches from nose to tip of tail, and face of the rock; Lim, who was behind me, then adjourned to the temple, where a translated that I was to crawl into it until feast of triumph and tiger-meat was held I came to the tiger. This did not sound throughout the evening.