aroundworldortra00peebiala-1

194 ABOUND THE WORLD.
built by convict-labor, sixteen "heathen" natives stand out
under a scorching noonday sun on the " Lord's Day," pulling
punkas to fan these ritualistic English Christians, while
they drawlingly " worship God," sajdng, very sensibly,
" Have mercy upon us miserable sinner s.^^
During this trip over to Johore, we saw monkeys leaping on
trees, birds of rich plumage, a young elephant, a huge, sMmy
boa-constrictor just killed by the wayside, and the fresh skin
of a tiger, which, while covering the ravenous brute, had
concealed the remnants of many a man. In his stomach was
found part of a breastbone, and several human hands. Government
pays a handsome bounty upon tiger-kilHng.
A JUNGLE. — TIGEKS.
What American has not read of the East-India jungles?
Permit the pen to paint one. A jungle is a heavy forest of
gigantic trees with a compact foliage of dark-green leaves.
Under these grow up another tribe of trees, shorter, more
umbrageous, and loaded with such wild fruit as mangosteens,
mangoes, and jumbus. Beneath and around these again,
there's a prolific growth never seen outside the tropics, —
palms, rattans, ferns, and indescribable plants, literally woven
together, like the " lawyer-hedges " of New Zealand, by a
net-work of creepers and parasites. Such a forest is a
jungle, the home of the tiger. I never passed one without
thinking of tigers and boa-constrictors. Serpents — cold,
slimy, treacherous, and poisonous — I loathe and despise.
Eden's fable has nothing to do with this inborn dislike to
crawling things. Men that tame and handle serpents, and
women that pet poodle-dogs, reveal what they might as well
conceal
It was estimated, a few years since, that one man a day fell
a victim to the
crushing stroke of the tiger in Singapore, an
island of about two hundred square miles. These tigers
swim across the straits from Johore to the island. The distance
is about two miles. The tiger stealthily strikes, and