62 NATURAL HISTORY IN ANECDOTE.

but leopards or panthers are always called so, and by our:
selves as well as by the natives. This turned out to be a
panther. My gun chanced not to be put together; and, while
my servant was doing it, the collector and two medical men,
who had recently arrived, in consequence of the cholera
morbus having just then reached Ceylon from the Continent,
came to my door, the former armed with a fowling-piece, and
the two latter with remarkably blunt hog-spears. They insisted
upon setting off, without waiting for my gun,—a proceeding
not much to my taste. The tiger (I must continue to call
him so) had taken refuge in a hut, the roof of which, like
those of Ceylon huts in general, spread to the ground like
an umbrella; the only aperture into it was a small door,
about four feet high. The collector wanted to get the tiger
out at once. I begged to wait for my gun; but no—the
fowling-piece, (loaded with ball, of course,) and the two hog-
spears, were quite enough. I got a hedge-stake, and awaited
my fate, from very shame. At this moment, to my great
delight, there arrived from the fort an English officer, two
artillery-men, and a Malay captain; and a pretty figure we
should have cut without them, as the event will show. I
was now quite ready to attack, and my gun came a minute
afterwards. The whole scene which follows took place within
an enclosure, about twenty feet square, formed, on three sides,
by a strong fence of palmyra leaves, and on the fourth by
the hut. At the door of this, the two artillery-men planted
themselves: and the Malay captain got at the top, to frighten
the tiger out, by worrying it—an easy operation, as the huts
there are covered with cocoa-nut leaves. One of the artillery-
men wanted to go in to the tiger, but we would not suffer
it. At last the beast sprang. This man received him on his
bayonet, which he thrust apparently down his throat, firing
his piece at the same moment. The bayonet broke off short,
leaving less than three inches on the musket; the rest remained
in the animal, but was invisible to us. The shot probably