SPOTTED DEER 



however ; but in all my travels, making use as I do of 

 local villagers only, I have not met more than two genuine 

 hunters who can and do conduct a white man round the 

 " parks " as well as if they were working for themselves, 

 taking a real interest in it, and having some faint con- 

 ception of the white man's desire for sport. The ordinary 

 native's sole object is meat and profit he simply cannot 

 for a single moment grasp the idea that any sane man hunts 

 for amusement being firmly under the impression that 

 " master " makes money out of the horns, skins, elephant's 

 feet, &c., he so carefully carries away with him ; and he 

 seems to think, if he conies with you as a guide or carrier, 

 that your duty is to shoot anything you see, buck or doe, 

 to provide him and his with meat. Under the above cir- 

 cumstances it will readily be understood that to successfully 

 make use of the local natives you must know the country 

 you are hunting in, know the people, and above all know 

 the language, or you will get very poor sport. That is 

 where visiting sportsmen are so handicapped. If they elect 

 to try other parts of the country than the Hambantota 

 District (where very good Government-controlled trackers 

 can be hired), unaccompanied by even a Colombo-hired 

 professional tracker, they must depend entirely, for inter- 

 course with the natives, on their native servant, also picked 

 up in Colombo, who naturally knows nothing of the low 

 country, and has neither desire nor intention to go into the 

 jungle, and will therefore by every means in his power keep 

 the party on the main roads. I have gone thus into par- 

 ticulars in this chapter on spotted deer, because it is the 

 game a sportsman will meet with more than any other in 

 Ceylon in the ordinary course of a hunting trip, and which 

 will occupy his time and attention most unless he is going 

 for some particular object, such as elephant or buffalo. 



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