SHOOTING IN BURMA 



529 



out as a bait, but the villagers refused 

 to sell me even one. I was thus forced 

 to rely on the chance of finding a kill 

 of a wild animal in the forests. I was 

 rather lucky in this, as about three 

 weeks after I had arrived, one of my 

 men one morning came upon the body 

 of a sambur stag which had been killed 

 by a tiger on the previous day. In the 

 course of the day I had my machdn 

 erected on a conveniently situated tree 

 and at about 4.30 p. m. I started off 

 the kill, accompanied by two Burmans. 

 When I arrived there, to my great sur- 

 prise I came face to face with the tiger 

 having its meal. However, before I 

 could get a shot stripes was oft'. I felt 

 inclined to return to my camp, thinking 

 that the beast would not come back that 

 evening, but acting on the advice of 

 my Burmans, I changed my mind and 

 went to the machdn followed by my 

 men. We had hardly been seated for 

 half an hour, when I saw the huge cat 

 coming stealthily along towards the kill, 

 taking cover most carefully for about 

 four or five seconds behind every bush 

 it came across. As it approached nearer 

 and nearer to the kill, I gradually 

 brought my rifle up to the present, and 

 as soon as it came into the open near 

 the carcass, I aimed for its heart and 

 fired. As soon as I had done so, the 

 beast gave a wild jump, let out a loud 

 roar and rolled over. At first I thought 

 it was dead, but after a short time it 

 got up and disappeared from sight into 

 the thick undergrowth. As it was 

 getting dark by then I decided not to 

 follow up the wounded animal, but re- 

 turned to camp as soon as possible. The 

 next morning, accompanied by almost 

 all the villagers who having heard of the 

 affair had early flocked to my tent, I 

 went in search of the tiger. When we 

 came to the site to my great astonish- 

 ment I found that the kill had been 

 dragged during the night. This could 

 mean either I had not mortally wounded 

 the tiger or else there was another ani- 

 mal feeding on the kill. The first sup- 

 position was soon dispelled, for we soon 

 after struck the trail of blood and found 

 stripes lying cold and stiff in a chaung 

 close by. It was a tigress I had shot, 

 and it measured 8 feet 6 inches. The 

 bullet had gone clean through its body, 

 and it must have died shortly after we 



had quitted the machdn the evening 

 before. The Burmans and Karens then 

 told me that its pair must be the animal 

 which had dragged the kill during the 

 night. I immediately had another 

 machdn erected and went off to work. 

 I went out to the kill that evening at 

 about 3.30 p. m., but when I arrived 

 there I found that the body had been 

 dragged again by the beast during the 

 day. To enable me to see the carcass 

 clearly from the machdn, I had the place 

 around it slightly cleared, but whether 

 this cutting frightened the animal or 

 not, nothing turned up that evening, al- 

 though I sat up till it was too dark to 

 see. The tiger, or whatever it was, 

 came, however, the same night and 

 dragged away the kill again. I had an- 

 other machdn erected near the new spot 

 and sat up again that evening. When 

 it was almost dusk, to my great surprise, 

 instead of a tiger a huge black bear 

 shambled out from the undergrowth and 

 started eating at the carcass. I soon 

 settled him with a shot through his 

 breast. I then naturally concluded, that 

 it must have been the bear that had 

 dragged the body of the deer the day 

 before. But the Burmans and Karens 

 would have it that it was a tiger and 

 even showed me fresh pug marks of 

 the huge cat. They also solemnly stated 

 that the tiger had not come because it 

 was afraid of the bear, and that it 

 would come again now that the latter 

 was dead. I may here state that when 

 I was skinning this animal the villagers 

 were very keen on getting hold of a 

 part of the intestine they called the 

 the-gay. I do not know exactly what 

 organ of the bear's body it is, but it 

 was considered very valuable as a medi- 

 cine by the people, and one villager 

 even offered me Rs. 5 for it. He was 

 greatly surprised when I declined to sell 

 it to him, but gave it away gratis to the 

 man who had helped me most in the 

 shoot. W^ell. to revert again to the kill, 

 I found the next morning that it had 

 been dragged yet again, and I was thor- 

 oughly astonished. In the evening I 

 sat up again on a newly-made macJidn, 

 but it was in vain, as nothing appeared. 

 The next evening, however, I was more 

 fortunate, but again, instead of the ex- 

 pected tiger, another black bear came to 

 the kill, and I easily disposed of him. 



*Courtesy The Indian Forester. 



