few mangled bones. The Waidono had got together about seven hundred men,
and were in chase of the animal, which, I afterwards heard, they found and
killed. They only use spears when in pursuit of a tiger in this way. They
surround a large tract of country, and draw gradually together until the animal is
enclosed in a compact ring of armed men. When he sees there is no escape he
generally makes a spring, and is received on a dozen spears, and almost instantly
stabbed to death. The skin of an animal thus killed is, of course, worthless, and
in this case the skull, which I had begged Mr. Ball to secure for me, was hacked
to pieces to divide the teeth, which are worn as charms.
After a week at Wonosalem, I returned to the foot of the mountain, to a village
named Djapannan, which was surrounded by several patches of forest, and
seemed altogether pretty well suited to my pursuits. The chief of the village had
prepared two small bamboo rooms on one side of his own courtyard to
accommodate me, and seemed inclined to assist me as much as he could. The
weather was exceedingly hot and dry, no rain having fallen for several months,
and there was, in consequence, a great scarcity of insects, and especially of
beetles. I therefore devoted myself chiefly to obtaining a good set of the birds,
and succeeded in making a tolerable collection. All the peacocks we had hitherto
shot had had short or imperfect tails, but I now obtained two magnificent
specimens more than seven feet long, one of which I preserved entire, while I
kept the train only attached to the tail of two or three others. When this bird is
seen feeding on the ground, it appears wonderful how it can rise into the air with
such a long and cumbersome train of feathers. It does so however with great
ease, by running quickly for a short distance, and then rising obliquely; and will
fly over trees of a considerable height. I also obtained here a specimen of the
rare green jungle-fowl (Gallus furcatus), whose back and neck are beautifully
scaled with bronzy feathers, and whose smooth-edged oval comb is of a violet
purple colour, changing to green at the base. It is also remarkable in possessing a
single large wattle beneath its throat, brightly coloured in three patches of red,
yellow, and blue. The common jungle-cock (Gallus bankiva) was also obtained
here. It is almost exactly like a common game-cock, but the voice is different,
being much shorter and more abrupt; hence its native name is Bekeko. Six
different kinds of woodpeckers and four kingfishers were found here, the fine
hornbill, Buceros lunatus, more than four feet long, and the pretty little lorikeet,
Loriculus pusillus, scarcely more than as many inches.
One morning, as I was preparing and arranging specimens, I was told there
was to be a trial; and presently four or five men came in and squatted down on a
mat under the audience-shed in the court. The chief then came in with his clerk,