<A JOURNEY IN THE EAST: 267 



my direction, and saw a tolerably large wolf slipping through 

 the canes, and rolled it over with a lucky shot ; a few minutes 

 later my left-hand neighbour wounded another so severely 

 that it could hardly crawl off to the adjacent bean-fields, 

 while two more managed to escape uninjured at points where 

 the guns were too far apart. 



In the last beat one of the sportsmen also wounded an 

 ichneumon, but it crept back into the thick canes. As for the 

 short search made for the wounded wolves, that was naturally 

 unsuccessful in these great green fields, which extended 

 further than the eye could reach. 



We now went off to the opposite side of the plantation, 

 where our excellent dragoman had ordered some horses and 

 donkeys to await us. The wolves were carefully tied together 

 and slung over the donkeys, and the caravan soon got under 

 weigh the beaters disappearing in various directions, the 

 guides and donkey-drivers alone accompanying us. 



One of these fellows appeared to pursue in his leisure hours 

 the occupation of snake-charmer, so much beloved of Orientals, 

 for during the march he pulled out of a leather bag which 

 was hidden under his loose garments two very large and im- 

 posing Spectacled Snakes which he had yesterday caught near 

 the lake. Of course he showed off the usual trick of breathing 

 on the serpents, which made them lie quite stiff, as if dead ; 

 but after a few minutes the much-tormented creatures, whose 

 fangs had been extracted and who were therefore quite harm- 

 less, recovered and wriggled back into the brown sack. 



As we were walking our horses the dachshunds ran beside 

 us, and when the caravan neared a small wretched village 

 only adorned by some singularly fine palms and sycamores, the 

 eager dogs vanished into a small square bean-field and at once 

 began to hunt merrily. We jumped off our horses and sur- 

 rounded the field, which might have been shot across from 

 side to side, yet within this narrow space the hunt went up 



