A hook is
then baited and cast into the river or lake. Next day the guilty
brother, or one of his family, is dragged ashore, and after his
crime has been clearly brought home to him by a strict
interrogation, he is sentenced to death and executed. The claims of
justice being thus satisfied and the majesty of the law fully
vindicated, the deceased crocodile is lamented and buried like a
kinsman; a mound is raised over his relics and a stone marks the
place of his head.
Again, the tiger is another of those dangerous beasts whom the
savage prefers to leave alone, lest by killing one of the species he
should excite the hostility of the rest. No consideration will
induce a Sumatran to catch or wound a tiger except in self-defence
or immediately after a tiger has destroyed a friend or relation.
When a European has set traps for tigers, the people of the
neighbourhood have been known to go by night to the place and
explain to the animals that the traps are not set by them nor with
their consent. The inhabitants of the hills near Rajamahall, in
Bengal, are very averse to killing a tiger, unless one of their
kinsfolk has been carried off by one of the beasts.
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