SNIPE SHOOTING 



to all sorts of uses. As a last hint, when you have been 

 industriously tramping through mud, or along ridges, 

 for some hours, successfully or otherwise, and feel the 

 need of some liquid refreshment, there is nothing in the 

 wide world to equal the water of the young coconut, 

 known to the natives as kurumba. These can usually be 

 procured from any village garden for a consideration of 

 a few cents each ; the end of the husk is deftly sliced 

 off with a knife, baring the young shell, which is then 

 equally deftly opened, and you proceed to absorb a drink 

 " fit for the gods " cool, sweet, and delicious. 



To turn now to personal experiences, I think I 

 am justified in feeling a little pardonable pride in the 

 following account of my own first essay in the art 

 of shooting. My knowledge of shooting was a minus 

 quantity, as I had never shot anything in my life 

 before, and barely even fired off a gun. I had become 

 the proud possessor, owing to a mistaken idea on the 

 part of my people at home, of a double-barrelled gun 

 consisting of, right barrel No. 12 cylinder bore, left 

 barrel a rifle bored to take a Snider cartridge, the whole 

 thing weighing about 8^ pounds ; and with this gun, 

 one afternoon in November 1889, I made my first appear- 

 ance as a snipe shooter, or indeed shooter of any sort. My 

 bungalow was close to a fine range of fields, so I recruited 

 four Singhalese youngsters from the village and away I 

 went. Before I had advanced ten yards into the fields a 

 snipe got up close to me, flying away, somewhat from 

 left to right. Up went the gun and, covering the bird 

 as best I could, instinctively allowing a little, I pulled 

 trigger and down fell my first snipe ! Scorning to show 

 any surprise or emotion before my boys, I instructed 

 one to retrieve it and walked on, but my heart was 



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