144 STALKS ABROAD 



looked on and sadly ruminated over the unfair 

 advantages which a gift of tongues confers on the 

 owner, and wished that I was such an one, or that 

 the Tower of Babel had never been built. 



Then we returned to the deer. Most of them had 

 already departed, hornless and abashed, but there were 

 still the three big ones to vanquish and one or two 

 young beasts. The big stag came crashing and ratt- 

 ling below us with three nets entangled in his horns. 

 Evading many rather wild grabs, for sake had 

 been flowing freely, he got up in a corner and 

 thrashed his head savagely from side to side. At 

 length by sheer fury he got rid of his encumbrances 

 and came charging back bleeding freely at the 

 mouth. Then a diversion occurred. A very drunk 

 man dropped heavily into the arena, looked about 

 him in a dazed kind of way for some moments, and 

 proceeded to gird up his loins for action. His cos- 

 tume when completed to his own satisfaction con- 

 sisted of a brown and much bedraggled kimono tied 

 in a lump round his waist, blue shorts and stockings, 

 elastic-sided boots, and a vest. A man near him, a 

 very powerful fellow, though the toper himself was 

 no child, had sneaked up behind a panic-stricken 

 stag, grabbed his horns and unaided thrown him. 

 The gentleman in the bedraggled kimono evidently 

 considered this a feat which he might worthily 

 endeavour to emulate. The big stag was standing 

 alone in one corner, and he the follower of Bacchus 

 alone considered worthy of his strength. He pro- 



