But the tiger family must not kill a prey at the Water Hole. And all other flesh-eating animals--lions and leopards, and wolves and hyenas--must also abstain from killing prey there. Hundreds of pigs and sheep and deer may have come to drink at the Water Hole--- and every flesh-eating animal must abstain from killing any one of the pigs or sheep or deer. This "Truce of the Water Hole" is one of the greatest wonders of the jungle. It means that in other parts of the jungle there may be a kind of war, because flesh-eating animals may kill and eat their prey, but when all the different animals meet to quench their thirst at the Water Hole, there must be no war--no killing, no fighting. There must be peace at that place while the different animals are there. At the Water Hole the tiger and the lamb may drink together in peace; and hungry as the tiger may be, he must not hurt the lamb. And the wonder of it is that the tiger knows that law, and always keeps it. Likewise all other flesh-eating animals always keep that law; they never hurt even the weakest and most timid animal at the Water Hole. They all feel that they have come there for a greater need than _hunger_--they have come there to quench their _thirst_; and the pain of thirst is greater than the pain of hunger. They feel that the pain of thirst is common to them all; that is, they all suffer from that pain. Different animals _eat_ different things; but they must all _drink water_. And in that fellow feeling there is peace among them all. My dear children, let me impress this upon your minds, while you are still young. When you grow up, you may sometimes be tempted to doubt that an all-merciful Providence watches over us. Then remember these wonders of the jungle that I have described to you. And remember especially the Water Hole, where all animals are like brothers, where even the tiger and the lamb drink and lie down together in peace. CHAPTER IX The Special Qualities of Tiger and Tigress Now I am going to tell you a few more things about the tiger, from which you will realize what a wonderful animal he is. First, the tiger's _size_. The finest specimen of the tiger is the Royal Bengal tiger. Such a tiger, when full grown, is sometimes seven feet long, without including the tail; the tail is usually half as long as the body. The tigress is slightly smaller. In height a Bengal tiger often measures three and a half feet from the shoulder to the ground; so his head would be more than four feet from the ground. Hence, if you take his length into account, you will understand that the tiger is really the largest feline or animal of the Cat Tribe. I do not think that you have often seen a really large tiger in the zoo. Most of the tigers in a zoo were caught as cubs; that is, the mother or the father was shot by hunters, and the cubs were captured alive.