56 Incidents of Foreign Field Sport. 



to come from a different direction. I did not move, 

 as if they followed the path they must pass close to 

 me when I could question them. 



Presently four lassies, the eldest not more than 

 seventeen and the others between fifteen and that 

 age, with trays on their heads and in gala costume, 

 came in view on the opening at the further side of 

 the river's bank. It did not take them a minute to 

 deposit their burdens, take off their thin jackets, lay 

 aside their " thamins," and throw themselves into the 

 river, which nowhere was much above their knees. 

 They amused themselves playing and romping with 

 each other, totally unconscious that there was a man 

 sitting down within thirty yards of them. I was 

 absorbed in the spectacle, for the girls were pretty, in 

 fact you might travel through the length and breadth 

 of Europe and not meet with such perfect figures. 

 But Asiatics, left to nature, strangers to corsets 

 and tight-lacing, develop in a manner unknown to 

 people of colder climes, who, though oftener prettier 

 in the face, are sadly deficient in the contour of the 

 body. The Elders who peeped at Susanna, would 

 have gone raving mad could they have seen the 

 abandon of these four damsels ! I had been inwardly 

 chuckling and conceived the idea of jumping up and 

 overwhelming them with confusion, when a movement 

 in the grass attracted my attention. As I said before, 

 I did not think that a hare could have passed without 

 being seen, but though I took my eyes off the fascin- 

 ating spectacle in the stream, and bent them on the 

 spot, I could see nothing, but once my attention had 

 been called away from the nymphs, my instinct as a 

 hunter predominated. So I seized my rifle, loaded the 



