The Following Tiger

It is more than twenty years ago that Lieutenant P. met me as a managing official at Koeta Radja came to me to show me something special tell, and he told me one of the most wonderful stories I have ever heard ever heard.

“You are a hunter yourself, otherwise I would hardly dare tell you! I was yesterday afternoon we went out for a bit of sniping, it was a quarter to five when I, on my bicycle, arrived at the rice fields. I had my jacket pockets full shotgun cartridges, caliber 9, but not a single snipe flew from the not yet planted rice fields; and so I walked along, searching, sawah dikes, up to that clump of shrubs that you know and that there lies like an island in the sea, there is one dead tall coconut palm in the middle, the whole thing is no bigger than the base area of ​​a native dwelling.

“There was not a breath of wind, the sawah workers had already cleared the fields deserted, it was still burning hot, and silent, solemnly silent.

“When I got to within twenty yards of the bush and started walking with a As I approached the bend, I finally took a good look... and it was as if my neck hairs frozen stiff! On the side of the bush, the head turned away and staring over the vast rice paddy plain stretching for miles all around, stood a full-grown royal tiger, motionless, like a statue. Although it wasn't the first tiger I'd ever faced, I was completely paralyzed for a moment. But then a painful whiplash went through my brain, that I only had snipe patterns I had, I could think again and I suddenly remembered that I happened to have one cartridge with heavy barrels in my pocket, and I decided to take a chance... what else was I supposed to do, Running away would have been madness. My fingers were shaking, but I quickly exchanged a shotgun cartridge against the runners. He was still in to gaze calmly at his majesty. I no longer trembled when I moored, and just as the beautiful animal calmly turned its head towards me, my shot into his heart, and without a sound he collapsed.”

"But... a tiger here?! One could sooner have a wild polar bear on the “Expect a square in The Hague!”

“Yes, I understand that the story is too much for even you, but I have the skin brought with me, and also the Atjehers, who immediately jumped out at my shot the edge of the camp. Although they saw with their own eyes the still warm tiger, I think they still think about witchcraft. Besides, I know myself no, what should I think of it... where did this tiger come from, that is here during the day, near Koeta Radja, in that glowing sawah sea stood staring, looking out as if he was waiting for something, looking for something?”

As he spoke I saw the silent, glowing plain, the familiar 1000 meter strip around Koeta Radja, formerly a complex of houses and forest purified to protect the main town against unexpected attacks attacked; and next to the clump of low bushes with the broken coconut tree, I saw the wonderful beautiful animal, staring, on the lookout, waiting and staring all the time, the gently waving tail the any sign of life. The mystery from the cool woods in the dusty, treeless mud plain, where people spend the whole day the surrounding villages had worked; and everywhere the the smell of humanity still hangs heavy in the fields, on the dikes, the air which he so disliked...

A few months later we opened the small racecourse behind Peutjoet, the cemetery at Koeta Radja, where so many brave Dutch boys rest. The races would begin shortly.

“Doesn't the Kedjoeroehan come from Lhong?” I asked one of the most well-known Acehnese figures. I missed the horse lover from the the south, which could not be missed here.

Teukoe Radja Itam smiled shyly.

“Oh, toean, you don't believe such things, and I know myself I don't know what to think about it anymore. But you are a civil servant, I I'll tell you anyway."

He looked around for a moment, no one could hear our conversation, a slight shiver pulled at the corners of his mouth.

“Is it true that a few months ago an officer on the great Sawah plain near Koeta Radja shot a tiger? Yes? So that's really true?!...

“The Kedjoeroehan of Lhong had a follower tiger, who was with him everywhere, invisible, but he protected my friend from all kinds of danger. A A few months ago the Kedjoeroehan was called up by the Governor, General van Heutsz, for that matter which you know about. When he was well and truly in Koeta Radja, my friend knew that his comrade was no longer with him; he had the wisdom, the ilmoe, to do this know, although he usually didn't see him either. He understood that the animal was on somehow got lost, maybe got scared of the people and the hustle and bustle, but he was convinced he would make it home find, something like this had happened before.

“He came home, but the tiger wasn't there, and without him the Kedjoeroehan does not have any long journeys to make yet.

“None of us understand how and why the animal ended up there in the middle of the sawahs have become visible and therefore vulnerable. But we know, that it is the follower tiger of the Kedjoeroehan, which is followed by that lieutenant was shot dead...”

We looked at each other, moved.

The bell rang for the first race.