Page:Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan.djvu/227

Rh Unlike Haidar Alí, he ordinarily affected extreme simplicity of dress as more becoming to an orthodox believer, and enjoined the observance of the same rule on all his followers, but when proceeding on journeys he wore a coat of cloth of gold with a red tiger-streak embroidered on it. He generally wrapped a white handkerchief over his turban and under his chin. The turban in the later years of his life was of a green colour.

The popular error that Tipú is the Kanarese word for 'tiger' seems to have arisen in this way. The synonym for a lion (his father's name) would be in India 'a tiger,' lions being unknown in Southern India, and in order probably to strike terror into the minds of his subjects he adopted this ferocious beast as the emblem of his rule. It used to be said, that he declared he would sooner live two days as a tiger than two hundred years as a sheep. The uniform of his soldiers was embellished with a tiger-stripe, the same device being shown on his guns and other paraphernalia. According to the statements of his English prisoners, several live tigers were kept in cages or chained up in front of his palace.

On his weapons he had inscribed 'Asad Ullah al Ghálib,' that is 'the Lion of God (Alí, for whom he had a great reverence) is the conqueror.' The principal