IN BURMAH 325 



to turn up in a beat on the hills and the adjacent 

 lands lends the business peculiar, but withal baffling, 

 attractions ; this is particularly the case near the areas 

 of toungya cultivation those clearings strewn with 

 tree trunks and limbs felled by fire in the wasteful 

 process of preparing land for cultivation practised 

 by the Karens. Game is almost always to be found 

 in the jungle surrounding these clearings, and the 

 cultivator is always only too pleased to give your 

 party any help he can. Perhaps he shows you last 

 night's slots of a sambhur which has defied his best 

 efforts of fence-building ; the shikari compares notes 

 with him, chooses the ground to beat, posts you be- 

 hind a recumbent tree-trunk, and leads the beaters 

 into the jungle. You make yourself comfortable, 

 and study the probable field of fire, " visualising " a 

 sambhur as your objective at least I always did so 

 on the strength of the slots ; and when, instead of the 

 expected sambhur, an elderly, active pig turns up, 

 dodging among tree-stumps and bushes, the appari- 

 tion is a little apt to put you off your shot. And 

 here it may be well to say that if you are camping 

 near or mean to shoot in the neighbourhood, you will 

 do wisely to try and drop that undesired pig. Pigs 

 are among the most mischievous foes of the Karen 

 farmer, and he will assuredly reckon its death to you 

 for merit, and think nothing of making a day's 

 journey to bring you news of game in requital. 

 Moreover, your men will eat as much pig as they 

 can hold, and be all the keener to work for you after 

 it. Buddhist law forbids the Burman to take life, 



