Mixed Sport. 261 



March and April and put a stop to the process, but 

 it is an ill wind that blows nobody any good, and 

 though the rains had spoi]t the burning, they had 

 filled the Gna-Eein, and other pools in the jungles, 

 near which we should be sure to get good sport. 

 Early next morning we were on our elephants, Lloyd 

 on a tusker belonging to the commissariat and I on 

 my own "hattie." We had eight more as beaters 

 and for carrying game. I may here say, that there 

 are no professional shikaries like those in India to be 

 found in Burma, yet every village of any importance 

 has a man or two who kills game and sells it to the 

 people, but for a long time we could not induce them 

 to accompany us. In the first place, they did not 

 want their own preserves, or what they considered as 

 such, to be encroached upon, as it would have deprived 

 them of their profits, and, secondly, they had an idea 

 that if any European came to grief, they would be 

 blamed and perhaps hanged ! Of the niceties of 

 sport they knew nothing, were not good trackers, but 

 they were acquainted with the country and could take 

 you with precision from one place to another. Every 

 Burman knows sufficient of the stars to guide himself 

 by them at night. Moreover very few Europeans at 

 that time had acquired their language. But Eaikes 

 of the Artillery and Charlie Hill of the 69th both 

 learned to speak Burmese fluently, and they were the 

 first men on the Sittang side, with the exception of 

 Berdmore and O'Riley, who induced the Burmese to 

 show them game. I followed in their footsteps and 

 moreover had had four years' experience of the country 

 and people in other parts of Burma, and so I knew 

 that if kindly treated, given all game not required as 



