A Quokka Dreeds its Weird

To my delight, the Wikipedia page on Tanaji now links to this classic account, written in the style that made my history textbooks so much fun. (He refused to be felicitated.) Seriously, if American history texts were written like this, Americans would remember a lot more history.

( It is said that Chandravally, the manslaying elephant charged at Tanaji who jumped on its back and chopped off its trunk with his sword, reducing it to a lump of bleeding clay. )

Full story here.

Last night, in the middle of a long and I suspect totally insane-sounding speech I made to yhlee concerning Gundam Wing, guerilla warfare in 1600s India, and my longtime pet obsesssion, Maharashtrian battle lizards, I said, "And I think someone at sort of that time had a mechanical tiger. Or maybe I hallucinated that."

Behold the power of the internet! Tipu Sultan's Mechanical Tiger Eating a British East India Company Officer.

Watching his toy tiger tear the English soldier to pieces amused Tipu. I am surprised that the Indian government hasn't attempted to retrieve it.

ETA: If a hypothetical person was to set something around 1650 -- but 1650 with magic metal steampunk mechanical tigers -- would you call them mechanical, or would you call them clockwork, or would you use some other phrase entirely? (The characters would not be speaking in English, I'm just writing in English. Hypothetically.)