DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5833#0166
FIGHT BETWEEN A COOEG AND A TIGER. 145
peatcd, and the goat bome off in- triumph, crowned
with a garland, by its keeper.
The next scene was of a far more awful character.
A man entered the arena, armed only with a Coorg
knife, and clothed in short trousers, which barely
covered his hips, and extended halfway down the
thighs. The instrument, which he wielded in his right
hand, was a heavy blade, something like the coulter
of a plough, about two feet long, and full three inches
wide, gradually diminishing towards the handle, with
which it formed a right angle. This knife is used with
great dexterity by the Coorgs, being swung round in
the hand before the blow is inflicted, and then brought
into contact with the object intended to be struck, with
a force and effect truly astounding.
The champion who now presented himself before the
Rajah was about to be opposed to a tiger, which he
volunteered to encounter almost naked, and armed only
with the weapon I have just described. He was ra-
ther tall, with a slight figure; but his chest was
deep, his arms long and muscular. His legs were
thin; yet the action of the muscles was perceptible
with every movement, whilst the freedom of his gait,
and the few contortions he performed preparatory to
the hazardous enterprise in which he was about to
engage, showed that he possessed uncommon ac-
tivity, combined with no ordinary degree of strength.
The expression of his countenance was absolutely
sublime when he gave the signal for the tiger to be
let loose: it was the very concentration of moral
energy—the index of a high and settled resolution
His body glistened with the oil which had been rubbed
o
peatcd, and the goat bome off in- triumph, crowned
with a garland, by its keeper.
The next scene was of a far more awful character.
A man entered the arena, armed only with a Coorg
knife, and clothed in short trousers, which barely
covered his hips, and extended halfway down the
thighs. The instrument, which he wielded in his right
hand, was a heavy blade, something like the coulter
of a plough, about two feet long, and full three inches
wide, gradually diminishing towards the handle, with
which it formed a right angle. This knife is used with
great dexterity by the Coorgs, being swung round in
the hand before the blow is inflicted, and then brought
into contact with the object intended to be struck, with
a force and effect truly astounding.
The champion who now presented himself before the
Rajah was about to be opposed to a tiger, which he
volunteered to encounter almost naked, and armed only
with the weapon I have just described. He was ra-
ther tall, with a slight figure; but his chest was
deep, his arms long and muscular. His legs were
thin; yet the action of the muscles was perceptible
with every movement, whilst the freedom of his gait,
and the few contortions he performed preparatory to
the hazardous enterprise in which he was about to
engage, showed that he possessed uncommon ac-
tivity, combined with no ordinary degree of strength.
The expression of his countenance was absolutely
sublime when he gave the signal for the tiger to be
let loose: it was the very concentration of moral
energy—the index of a high and settled resolution
His body glistened with the oil which had been rubbed
o