200 THE IMAGE OF WAE 



As ''bagmen" were afterwards procured without diffi- 

 culty, jackals must exist. But they are far from 

 being the common objects they are in India, and in 

 the neighbourhood of the town of Colombo they 

 must be few and far between, for I hunted there 

 regularly with harriers and never saw a jackal. As 

 I said before, there are no foxes in Ceylon. 



The hounds arrived in due course, all the ten 

 couple being in good health ; and I may mention 

 that, excepting one which picked up some poison, the 

 Colombo Hunt never lost a hound. 



As soon as things were got into working order 

 they proceeded to draw for a jackal, but I believe 

 they only once found. At all events they only had 

 one run. They found three jackals together, and 

 got away with one, which gave them a splendid 

 forty-five minutes' gallop. Then the jack turned to 

 bay, a proceeding which so astonished the hounds 

 that they stopped. The master was first up and 

 cheered them on; but the hounds unfortunately 

 came towards him. Meanwhile the jackal slipped 

 away, and they could never get on terms with him 

 again. 



After this bag-jackals were tried, but would not 

 run; and finally the pack descended to a drag. At 

 the beginning of the hot weather they were sold, and 

 it was decided to replace them with harriers after 

 the next rains. 



I have already said that during this time I was 

 absent from Colombo, — the reason being that I was 

 for a year in the old capital of Ceylon, Kandy. The 

 climate of Kandy is more favourable to hounds ; 

 but the country is very hilly, and much of it is 

 covered with close jungle. The jungle contains pig 



