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The Tiger Club 49 We regret to learn that tigers are beginning to infest the vicinity of the town, to such a degree as to require serious attention on part of the local authorities, with regard to their destruction. Not many days ago, the friends of a Chinese woodcutter, who had been missing for some days, discovered the head, and part of one leg of their companion in the thicket not far distant from the rear of the Chinese temple which lays near the road leading to New Harbour, and contiguous to the Sepoy lines. Marks of a tiger’s feet were plainly indented in the ground, round about the spot. We have heard that another native has been killed, since, by a tiger, in a different direction. —The Singapore Chronicle and Commercial Register, 8 Sep. 1831, p. 3 We have this week to report three deaths from Tigers, both in the immediate vicinity of cultivated lands. One occurred at Tanling where a Chinaman was the victim—his body was recovered by his friends, and, as usual, buried without any intimation being given to the Police of the cause of his death. It coming to the knowledge of the Deputy Magistrate that a body had been buried under rather suspicious circumstances he caused the Coffin to be dug up and opened when the appearance of the body at once shewed the cause of his death. The Chinese who live in the jungle it is known never think of giving information of the ravages committed by Tigers, so that it is only by enquiry that the facts become known. Their feelings of superstition in regard to Tigers may perhaps be a cause of this—we have been informed that they believe that when a person is killed by a Tiger his hantu or ghost becomes a slave to the beast, and attend upon it—that the spirit acts the part of a Jackal as it were and leads the Tiger to his prey—and, so thoroughly subservient does this poor ghost become to his Tigerish master, that he often brings the Tiger to the presence of his wife and children and calmly sees them devoured before his ghostly face. The old pyongs or umbrellas which may often be seen stuck on the tops of newly made graves are intended to mark the spot where a Tiger-slain body is deposited, but from what motive they are placed there we have not been able to learn. That the general belief as to the extent of the deaths SOURCE 2 The Tiger Club: Excerpts from Accounts of Tigers in 19th-Century Singapore 49 50 Nature Contained caused by Tigers and their prevalence on the Island is not based on false grounds, we can attest, having made considerable enquiry on the subject. We are informed on the best authority that in one district between Bukit Timah and the old Straits, six persons on an average are every month carried off from the Gambier plantations, and that not one of these cases is ever made known to the authorities. Lately in the Kallang district a Cow which was grazing at no great distance from a house on one of the large plantations was attacked by a Tiger who carried it off. On Monday morning the body of a Chinaman was brought to the Police Office having been found at a short distance beyond the Sepoy lines near the road leading to the New Harbour—the body was quite fresh and apparently newly killed—the companion of this man who had gone with him into the jungle has not since appeared so that it may be concluded that the Tiger had also killed him, and carried the body to his lair. —The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser, 26 Oct. 1843, p. 2 Tiger’s heads were frequently brought into town, and the Chinese were encouraged, by rewards, to catch them in pit falls. When they were successful in securing one, it was declared a general holiday amongst the European residents, who hastened out to see the monster, and be at his death. The pit would be 14 to 15 feet deep, and a strong frame of spars would be seen to have fallen over the mouth. Two fiery globes, the tiger’s eyes, would be seen at the bottom of the pit, and an occasional noise would be heard, as of rolling thunder. A long bamboo would be poked at the two globes; it would...

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