“Once, and only once, have I seen a bull succeed in throwing his opponent, after
he had lifted it off its feet. The vanquished bull turned over on its back before it
succeeded in regaining its feet, but the victor was itself too used up to more than
make a ghost of a stab at the exposed stomach of its adversary. This throw is still
spoken of in Pahang as the most marvellous example of skill and strength which
has ever been called forth within living memory by any of these contests.
“As the stabs follow one another, to the sound of the clicking of the horns and
the mighty blowing and snorting of the breathless bulls, lift succeeds lift with
amazing rapidity. The green turf is stamped into mud by the great hoofs of the
labouring brutes, and at length one bull owns himself to be beaten. Down goes
his head—that sure sign of exhaustion—and in a moment he has turned round
and is off on a bee-line, hotly pursued by the victor. The chase is never a long
one, as the conqueror always abandons it at the end of a few hundred yards, but
while it lasts it is fast and furious, and woe betide the man who finds himself in
the way of either of the excited animals.
“Mr. Kipling has told us all about the Law of the Jungle—which after all is only
the code of man, adapted to the use of the beasts by Mr. Rudyard Kipling—but
those who know the ways of buffaloes are aware that they possess one very well-
recognised law. This is, ‘Thou shalt not commit trespass.’ Every buffalo-bull has
its own ground; and into this no other bull willingly comes. If he is brought there
to do battle, he fights with very little heart, and is easily vanquished by an
opponent of half his strength and bulk who happens to be fighting on his own
land. When bulls are equally matched, they are taken to fight on neutral ground.
When they are badly matched the land owned by the weaker is selected for the
scene of the contest.
“All these fights are brutal, and in time they will, we trust, be made illegal. To
pass a prohibitionary regulation, however, without the full consent of the Chiefs
and people of Pahang would be a distinct breach of the understanding on which
British Protection was accepted by them. The Government is pledged not to
interfere with native customs, and the sports in which animals are engaged are
among the most cherished institutions of the people of Pahang. To fully
appreciate the light in which any interference with these things would be viewed
by the native population, it is necessary to put oneself in the position of a keen
member of the Quorn, who saw Parliament making hunting illegal, on the
grounds that the sufferings inflicted on the fox rendered it an inhuman pastime.