The man had just drawn from the fire a burning pole and was examining with much curiosity its glowing end, when the sound caused him to turn, only to meet the tiger, which had made its leap. The man bounded to one side, and at the same time, more by accident than design, he thrust the burning stick against the animal's breast. The fierce beast came against it with such impact that it penetrated through the skin and into the flesh. With a scream of terror and pain and many snarls and spits, the tiger began biting the injured spot and then turned and fled into the forest. Our man, who had given himself up for lost, stared in bewilderment at the retreating animal and then at the pole which had saved his life. He thought longer and more deeply than he had ever done before, as he stood beside the smouldering embers. Without any particular reason for his action, he gathered up some of the unconsumed ends of the branches, cast them into the coals, and was much amused to see them ignited and the flame renewed. It was a new plaything, and for a long time he continued to pile sticks upon the coals and to delight in the bright flame, the ascending smoke and the crackling sparks; but that he could make any practical use of his new discovery had not yet been suggested to his feeble intellect. Tiring at length of the sport, he realized that he was hungry, and, turning into the forest, he sought for food. For some hours he roamed the hills and valleys, striking down with his stick a small animal which he devoured raw; finding a few grubs under fallen logs which he turned over; and he found also a few berries, prematurely ripened, and finally satisfied his ravenous appetite by filling his stomach with buds of shrubs and some succulent roots, which experience had taught him were not injurious and were at least satisfying. By this time he had reached a part of the forest in which he had been making his home for a few weeks and, seeking out a tree, in which he had constructed a sort of nest with interlaced sticks and leaves, he lay down for a nap. He wakened late in the afternoon, climbed to the ground and started on an aimless walk through the forest, carrying his stick, but no other weapon, for other weapons than stones for throwing and sticks for striking were then unknown.