272 Incidents of Foreign Field Sport. 



minutes in the atmosphere we had just escaped from. 

 Jumping off the elephants and lying prone upon the 

 earth was the action of a moment, for heated air 

 ascends, so the surface of the ground is the coolest. 

 The fire in the " guddie " was extinguished. A few 

 minutes after, we were able to get on our hands and 

 feet and crawl to the pool of so-called water. It was 

 partly gruelly-looking mud, diluted with a large pro- 

 portion of buffalo urine ; but such as it was, we 

 threw ourselves into it, drank it greedily, and thought 

 it almost nectar. When sufficiently recovered to 

 look around, it was difficult to recognise individuals 

 for the whites were burnt black and the natives had 

 become almost fair. Looking at Lloyd I burst out 

 laughing ; he did the same when he looked at me. 

 Now Lloyd was a good-looking fellow, somewhere 

 about twenty-six or so, and prided himself greatly on 

 a luxuriant moustache and a pair of " Piccadilly 

 weepers." And where were they ? for now he had 

 neither, not even eyebrows or eyelashes, and the 

 hair on the side of his head, up to the cap was 

 frizzled off. I was a few years older, sported a pair 

 of black whiskers, etc., but devil a hair had I left 

 on my " phiz," while my hands and face were peeled. 

 My skin, never very fair, was now a sickly white 

 colour like that of a beastly albino. Nor had our 

 attendants fared better, for the Burmese had lost 

 their top-knots, and large blisters dominated over the 

 naked portions of their bodies. As for the mahouts, 

 their own mothers would not have acknowledged 

 them : they were transformed into some race utterly 

 unknown to science. The state of the elephants was 

 even worse : the soles of their feet were so scorched 



