288 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



except condition. As to length of horns, some of 

 those both of cows and bulls in the Burman semi- 

 wild herds are simply magnificent, and my fingers 

 have itched to pull the trigger when I came across 

 them, to all intents as wild as wild can be when 

 roaming the jungle, and as fierce (to a white man) 

 as they make them. However, it is as well not to 

 kill one in Burmah, for if you do plenty of claimants 

 will turn up, and you will have to pay through the 

 nose for your fun. 



Sometimes a wild buffalo bull attaches himself to 

 a tame herd and gives the herdsman a good deal of 

 trouble. I was travelling down the Brahmapootra in 

 boats with a friend who had spent most of his time 

 on the frontiers of Assam, and who had killed more 

 buffaloes on foot than anyone else. At a village 

 where we stopped, the headman reported a bull 

 buffalo with a tame herd, so we camped with a view 

 of meeting him in fair combat. We did so the next 

 morning, and a pretty dance he led us. We found 

 him on the edge of the open sand chur with the 

 tame cows in the early morning, and as we were 

 bothered by the cows getting in the way we did not 

 succeed in stopping him. We both fired, however, 

 and he plunged into the thick forest, leaving a blood 

 trail behind him. We tracked him some way, but 

 found the jungle so dense that it was useless to 

 expect a fair shot if we jumped him, or if he charged, 

 which he was most likely to do when he lay up. 



We therefore sent to the village for some dogs, 

 to see if we could worry our buff, into more open 



