4 
‘A JOURNEY IN THE EAST, 267 
my direction, and saw a tolerably large wolf slipping through 
the canes, and rolled it over with a lucky shot; a few minutes 
later my left-hand neighbour wounded another so severely 
that it could hardly crawl off to the adjacent bean-fields, 
while two more managed to escape uninjured at points where 
the guns were too far apart. 
In the last beat one of the sportsmen also wounded an 
ichneumon, but it crept back into the thick canes. As for the 
short search made for the wounded wolves, that was naturally 
unsuccessful in these great green fields, which extended 
further than the eye could reach, 
We now went off to the opposite side of the plantation, 
where our excellent dragoman had ordered some horses and 
donkeys to await us. The wolves were carefully tied together 
and slung over the donkeys, and the caravan soon got under 
weigh—the beaters disappearing in various directions, the 
guides and donkey-drivers alone accompanying us. 
One of these fellows appeared to pursue in his leisure hours 
the occupation of snake-charmer, so much beloved of Orientals, 
for during the march he pulled out of a leather bag which 
was hidden under his loose garments two very large and im- 
posing Spectacled Snakes which he had yesterday caught near 
the lake. Of course he showed off the usual trick of breathing 
on the serpents, which made them lie quite stiff, as if dead ; 
but after a few minutes the much-tormented creatures, whose 
fangs had been extracted and who were therefore quite harm- 
less, recovered and wriggled back into the brown sack. 
As we were walking our horses the dachshunds ran beside 
us, and when the caravan neared a small wretched village 
only adorned by some singularly fine palms and sycamores, the 
eager dogs vanished into a small square bean-field and at once 
began to hunt merrily. We jumped off our horses and sur- 
rounded the field, which might have been shot across from 
side to side, yet within this narrow space the hunt went up 
