a man-eating tiger suddenly leap out to attack one of their com-
panions, no one in the group made any effort to save their friend’s
life. They simply abandoned their friend to his fate and ran for
their lives. Suppose a group were sleeping in the forest overnight.
If a huge tiger leaped into the campsite and dragged one of them
away, the others, awakened by the noise, would jump up and run
away, and then, calmly find another place close by to sleep. Like
children, they acted without much rhyme or reason in these mat-
ters. They behaved as though those huge beasts, which had already
shown themselves to be so adept at devouring human flesh, were
somehow too stupid to do the same to them.
I am also familiar with people who have no proper fear of
tigers. When coming to live in our country, they like to settle in
dense, overgrown jungle areas abounding in tigers and other wild
animal. Venturing deep into the forest in search of timber, they
then spend the night there far from the village, showing no signs
of fear at all. Even alone, these people can sleep deep in the forest
at night without fear. If they wish to return to the village late
at night, they have no qualms about walking alone through the
dense undergrowth, and back if necessary. If asked why they aren’t
afraid of tigers, their response is that, while the huge tigers in their
own country have a taste for human flesh, Thai tigers don’t; and
that they’re even scared of people. Conditions can be so danger-
ous in their homeland that people staying overnight in the forest
must build an enclosure to sleep in that resembles a pigsty; other-
wise, they might never return home. Even within the precincts of
some village communities, prowling tigers can be so fierce that no
one dares leave home after dark, fearing an attack by a tiger leap-
ing out of the shadows. The Vietnamese even chide the Thais for
jacob rumans
(Jacob Rumans)
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