This html article is produced from an uncorrected text file through optical character recognition. Prior to 1940 articles all text has been corrected, but from 1940 to the present most still remain uncorrected. Artifacts of the scans are misspellings, out-of-context footnotes and sidebars, and other inconsistencies. Adjacent to each text file is a PDF of the article, which accurately and fully conveys the content as it appeared in the issue. The uncorrected text files have been included to enhance the searchability of our content, on our site and in search engines, for our membership, the research community and media organizations. We are working now to provide clean text files for the entire collection.
By Admiral Frank B. Kelso, U.S. Navy
Editor’s Note: At the Naval Institute’s recent seminar,
‘ ‘ASW: The Navy’s Top Warfighting Priority?”, Admiral Kelso delivered the luncheon address. He drew on Vice Admiral Peter A. Aurand’s 1974 Proceedings article, ‘‘Tiger Hunting in Dinglabash.” Admiral Kelso’s address is reprinted here.
Admiral Aurand’s story is about tiger hunting in
Dinglabash. If it has anything to do with antisubmarine warfare, I assure you it’s certainly coincidental. Dinglabash has three areas (Bangamore, Stinkastan, and Underbad) where they do tiger hunting, and it’s considered a major sport there. The common aspects of tiger hunting in these three provinces are as follows: the terrain is the same; the tigers are the same; and it’s very expensive. Because it is expensive, only the major princes play and can afford it. The princes direct these hunts in great detail, with a great amount of oversight.
Otherwise, however, this tiger hunting is conducted very differently in each of the three provinces. Over the years, the practitioners of each of the provinces became so fascinated with the traditions of their hunting—their methods—that they sometimes lost sight that the real object of the hunt was to protect their domestic animals.
In Bangamore, the method is for the hunters to form a ring several hundred meters in radius around a large animal which they want to protect. They stake it to a tree. The hunters move around this animal in a circle, in random fashion, trying to intercept any tigers that are heading for the bait. They carry only short-range pistols, which seems rather sporting until you recognize that the hunting areas are covered with very thick, tall grass about six feet high. Each hunter also carries a large gong, which he beats slowly, except when there is a tiger nearby; then the rhythm becomes rather frantic. One persistent problem is keeping sorted out whose gong is causing the tiger to yelp. This sometimes leads to fratricide among the hunters, who cannot, of course, be blamed for shooting at any suspicious movement in the tall grass. There is, therefore, a great tendency for hunters to run out of ammunition long before the hunt is over and before anyone has killed a tiger. When this happens, there is not much agreement as what to do. They don’t know whether to stop or to sneak home, or to bang louder and go like hell.
Worst of all, evolution has been working rapidly in the tiger population of Dinglabash. Today an almost voiceless, longer-clawed, swifter mutation of Tigris horribilis stalks silently through the deep grass of the Dinglabash plains. This frightening development results in a rush toward bigger and louder gongs, but alas, the new breed of tiger only hears them from farther away and the toll of hunters, to say nothing of goats, has been very bloody.
In contrast, tiger hunting in Stinkastan is much safer, but not necessarily more effective. Here the hunters ride on elephants, each proceeding alone on the vast grassland of Stinkastan, hoping somehow to encounter a tiger. Bait is rarely used. They have great faith in all sorts of omens, rumors, and hunches as to where the tigers are likely to be found. Each elephant carries especially trained men called Krus. In addition to the shooter, there is a noseman, an eyeman, an earman, and a Mahout, or driver, who has one or two assistants. Since the Mahouts are a very proud group and their reputation depends on their success in tiger hunting, the Krus, in order to please their masters, have been known to indicate occasionally that they have heard, seen, or smelled a tiger without one being there. Oddly enough, if one member of the Krus says he has sensed a tiger, the others have a tendency to confirm it, even if there is not one there. Applied to this
syndrome is an old Stinkastan proverb which says, “An impatient Mahout breeds many paper tigers!” In any case, this keeps the sport from getting dull, keeps the elephants well exercised, and does no harm except to the Prince’s treasury.
The people of Underbad are by nature extremely secretive. This made research into their tiger hunting methods very difficult. No foreigner has ever been allowed on one of their hunts. As best can be determined, it seems that the tiger hunters of Underbad have a stable of trained tigers that they release in the tall grass to seek out and kill the wild tigers. It is rumored that the trained tigers depend heavily on the spoor of the wild tigers, including such clues as tracks, droppings, flatulation, and other emissions. Of course, wild tigers are no slouches at this game either. Roaring, as well as yelping, tigers are a thing of the past in Underbad. Since it became obvious that the longer the roar, the shorter the life, selective breeding by the trainers and natural selection has made Underbad known as the “Territory of the Taciturn Tigers.”
It is rumored that this form of tiger hunting has some unique problems. Occasionally it has been deduced that two trained tigers encountered each other with disastrous results. Sometimes, moreover, analysis of the blood on the tiger’s fangs or claws indicates that he chewed up something other than a tiger. It is alleged that these problems are avidly discussed among the trainers, but never with outsiders.
That was the essence of Admiral Aurand’s article. I was a young captain of a submarine at that time, and I remember reading it. I was almost lying on the floor, laughing, in my stateroom. It was very true of 1974, when he wrote that article. He had just finished being Commander ASW Forces Pacific and trying to make our ASW forces better. Lo and behold, they decided to abolish his job. That really was what caused him to write the article on that.
So I thought I would go back and talk to the King of this country of Dinglabash and see what’s going on today, and maybe update the article a little bit. I went in to see the Prince in Bangamore, and I found that the Prince’s intelligence has been pretty good since 1974. They’ve learned a lot from Underbad and Stinkastan. They seldom use their short- or long-range gongs anymore. They use long listening tubes which they drag behind them in the tall grass to remain at ranges in which they are not threatened anymore, where the tigers can’t bother them. They have procured trained eagles with great eyes, great ears, and sharp claws, that can swoop down into the plains and grab the tigers. This method has shown great promise.
They have listening tubes of tremendous quality, and the eagles are very bright. However, the Prince often goes broke buying eagles and tubes. He has too little to devote to teaching the hunters what to listen for and how to distinguish tigers from bumps, grass clumps, and noisy, friendly animals on the plain. The ammunition supply remains a problem, and the potholes of the plain make it difficult to walk these days.
On the good side, the Prince has been seriously working with his brothers from Stinkastan and Underbad. The King of Dinglabash enthusiastically has advised that his three sons now believe that together they may even drive the wild tigers from the plain, but he admits that the different dialects are still a great problem. In Stinkastan, hunting is going on as before. To be sure, there are improved devices to update the omens, the rumors, and the hunches. There is even thought of procuring a larger elephant. He
can hunt longer without food and water. They can provide much improved eyemen and earmen and sensitivity for their jobs.
From time to time, there have been rumors of new magic devices that we can put on the elephants that will make the grasses of the plain transparent. But most of these achieve success only when the elephant is told where to hunt and where the tiger is located. The King has advised that these are great resource sumps.
But there is good news in Stinkastan, as well. They have developed a method to talk with their brothers in the adjacent provinces and to use their speed to close the distance, to kill the tigers that are a long way off. The Mahouts advise there is sometimes great reluctance from the neighboring hunters, however, to tell them where the tiger is. And sometimes, apparently, rather than tell the Mahouts where the tiger is so they can go to kill him, those who know where the tiger is are reluctant, because they don t want to give the Mahouts credit for the kill.
In Underbad, the hunting methods are much the same, also. The trained tigers have become much quieter and more sophisticated, but so have the wild ones. There is great worry over the number of new species of wild tigers on the plain. There is fear that the Prince’s hunters are losing the advantage. It is still difficult for the King to determine the real population of wild tigers. The King tells me that the Prince is still very silent. He says the Prince s motto is, “Silence in the palace brings stealth to the plain.”
It has been noted that the trained tigers’ tails are much longer and that their coats glisten more brightly, but the King complains about the cost of new grooming. There is even rumor of a new tiger that can move them through the grass of the plains without being seen. The Prince argues persuasively that this is absolutely necessary, because the wild tigers look so much alike, and that for his hunters to distinguish the newer wild ones, a new hunter breed is required. He also advised that there are only a very few skilled groomers and he had to keep them busy. He also was unhappy that the wild tigers had been recently remaining in their lairs and not coming out to play so much.
But the King tells me there is light at the end of this tunnel in Underbad. He says the Prince really talks with his brothers, even reports the position of his hunters now and then, and almost always advises when the wild tigers are going to cross the borders into the other provinces He believes this is a major reason for the increasing domestic animal population in his kingdom.
The King has told me that living long enough to observe cooperation among the three princes has been a joy of his life. He is certain recent successes in the hunt mean that they will continue to train and work together, even after he passes on. He has decreed the following to be placed on his headstone: “Hunting alone is expensive and dangerous. Hunting together is less expensive and dangerous. My princes, I lie in rest knowing you will hunt together.”
Admiral Kelso is Commander in Chief, U.S. Atlantic Command and Supreme Allied Commander, Atlantic. Admiral Kelso has been nominated to be the next Chief of Naval Operations.
Copies of the complete seminar transcript are available for $10.00 by writing to: Customer Service, U.S. Naval Institute, 2062 Generals Highway, Annapolis, MD 21401.