Chapter TO TIFF to TIGER of T by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

In Athenaeus, xiii. 57.

c. B.C. 320.—“According to Megasthenes, the largest tigers are found among the Prasii, almost twice the size of lions, and of such strength that a tame one led by four persons seized a mule by its hinder leg, overpowered it, and dragged it to him.”—Strabo, xv. ch. 1, § 37 (Hamilton and Falconer’s E.T. iii. 97).

c. B.C. 19.—“And Augustus came to Samos, and again passed the winter there…and all sorts of embassies came to him; and the Indians who had previously sent messages proclaiming friendship, now sent to make a solemn treaty, with presents, and among other things including tigers, which were then seen for the first time by the Romans; and if I am not mistaken by the Greeks also.”—Dio Cassius, liv. 9. [See Merivale, Hist. Romans, ed. 1865, iv. 176.]

c. B.C. 19.—
Aen. iv. 366-7.

c. A.D. 70.—“The Emperor Augustus…in the yeere that Q. Tubero and Fabius Maximus were Consuls together…was the first of all others that shewed a tame tygre within a cage: but the Emperour Claudius foure at once.…Tygres are bred in Hircania and India: this beast is most dreadful for incomparable swiftness.”—Pliny, by Ph. Holland, i. 204.

c. 80-90.—“Wherefore the land is called Dachanabades (see DECCAN), for the South is called Dachanos in their tongue. And the land that lies in the interior above this towards the East embraces many tracts, some of them of deserts or of great mountains, with all kinds of wild beasts, panthers and tigers ( [Greek Text] tigreiV) and elephants, and immense serpents ( [Greek Text] drakontaV) and hyenas ( [Greek Text] krokottaV) and cynocephala of many species, and many and populous nations till you come to the Ganges.”—Periplus, § 50.

c. A.D. 180.—“That beast again, in the talk of Ctesias about the Indians, which is alleged to be called by them Martióra(Martichóra), and by the Greeks Androphagus (Maneater), I am convinced is really the tiger ( [Greek Text] tontigrin. The story that he has a triple range of teeth in each jaw, and sharp prickles at the tip of his tail which he shoots at those who are at a distance, like the arrows of an archer,—I don’t believe it to be true, but only to have been generated by the excessive fear which the beast inspires. They have been wrong also about his colour;—no doubt when they see him in the bright sunlight he takes that colour and looks red; or perhaps it may be because of his going so fast, and because even when not running he is constantly darting from side to side; and then (to be sure) it is always from a long way off that they see him.”—Pausanias, IX. xxi. 4. [See Frazer’s tr. i. 470; v. 86. Martichoras is here Pers. mardumkhuur, ‘eater of men.’]

1298.—“Enchore sachiés qu le Grant Sire a bien leopars asez qe tuit sunt bon da chacer et da prendre bestes.…Il ha plosors lyons grandismes, greignors asez qe cele de Babilonie. Il sunt de mout biaus poil et de mout biaus coleor, car il sunt tout vergés por lone, noir et vermoil et blance. Il sunt afaités a prandre sengler sauvajes et les bueff sauvajes, et orses et asnes sauvajes et cerf et cavriolz et autres bestes.”—Marco Polo, Geog. Text, ch. xcii. Thus Marco Polo can only speak of this huge animal, striped black and red and white, as of a Lion. And a medieval Bestiary has a chapter on the Tigre which begins: “Une Beste est quiest apelée Tigre, c’est une maniere de serpent.”—(In Cahier et Martin, Mélanges d’Archéol. ii. 140).

1474.—“This meane while there came in certein men sent from a Prince of India, w^th certain strange beastes, the first whereof was a leonza ledde in a chayne by one that had skyll, which they call in their languaige Babureth. She is like vnto a lyonesse; but she is redde coloured, streaked all over w^th black strykes; her face is redde w^th certain white and blacke spottes, the bealy white, and tayled like the lyon: seemyng to be a marvailouse fiers beast.”—Josafa Barbaro, Hak. Soc. pp. 53–54. Here again is an excellent description of a tiger, but that name seems unknown to the traveller. Babureth is in the Ital. original Baburth, Pers. babr, a tiger.

1553.—“…Beginning from the point of Çingapura and all the way to Pulloçambilam, i.e. the whole length of the Kingdom of Malaca…there is no other town with a name except this City of Malaca, only some havens of fishermen, and in the interior a very few villages. And indeed the most of these wretched people sleep at the top of the highest trees they can find, for up to a height of 20 palms the tigers can seize them at a leap; and if anything saves the poor people from these beasts it is the bonfires they keep burning at night, which the tigers are much afraid of. In fact these are so numerous that many come into the city itself at night in search of prey. And it has happened, since we took the place, that a tiger leapt into a garden surrounded by a good high timber fence, and lifted a beam of wood with three slaves who were laid by the heels, and with these made a clean leap over the fence.”—Barros, II. vi. 1. Lest I am doing the great historian wrong as to this Munchausen-like story, I give the original: “E jà aconteceo…saltar hum tigre em hum quintal cercado de madeira bem alto, e levou hum tronco de madeira com trez (tres ?) escravos que estavam prezos nelle, com os quaes salton de claro em claro per cima da cerca,”

1583.—“We also escaped the peril of