300 Incidents of Foreign Field Sport. 



size of my little finger ; the former formed as it were 

 the first parallel, the latter the second. The first 

 would entangle anything from a hog- deer to a tiger, 

 but the second were placed only for such heavy 

 animals as buffaloes, etc., about fifty feet beyond the 

 first. These nets are never more than eight feet high ; 

 they are pitched, supported by bamboos, and pegged 

 down at the bottom, so when they receive a blow, 

 they fall forward and entangle everything within their 

 compass. Men, and boys even, are placed in ambush 

 close by, whose business it is to rush forward and to 

 administer to entangled beasts the coup de grace. If 

 this network is broken through, the watchers rush to 

 the second line and crawl under it until they are 

 on the right side. It is seldom that anybody is 

 hurt. The nets enclosed a vast space, and when I 

 was posted they had built a machan for my accom- 

 modation, which I declined to use the usual tom- 

 toming and cholera-horn blowing took place. As the 

 game was driven forward, so the nets in the rear were 

 pushed on, curtailing the circle gradually. The 

 watchers were armed with spears and dhaws, and lay 

 prone on the ground under any shelter they could 

 find sufficient to conceal their bodies. In half an hour 

 our circle had diminished considerably, a few deer 

 showed, were entangled and slain, the nets being 

 immediately afterwards rehoisted. Feints for a dash 

 were made, but the beasts lost heart perhaps they 

 scented blood, or the natives in front they were 

 odoriferous enough, I am sure, for the Assamese and 

 Cacharies are not a clean people like the Burmese 

 and broke back, but finding more men in the rear than 

 in the front, they ultimately made a determined move 



