80 PHRA RAM MAKES 



there was not a man, woman or child on the hither 

 side the Burma line who had not heard of our 

 proposed invasion before we left Eatburi. At 

 every camp they came flocking to swell the expedi- 

 tion and to reduce our provisions, until the thirty 

 men of our original party had increased to about 

 seventy-five. Some of these had guns, and many 

 of them professed to be hunters, so on my sugges- 

 tion, Phra Ram sent a dozen or two or three of 

 them scouring the country for tracks. Usually 

 they reported either none or old ones. Sometimes 

 they brought tales of fresh tracks and excellent 

 prospects. As a result of these hopeful stories I 

 made a number of side hunting excursions of sev- 

 eral hard days' duration after buffalo and kating; 

 but without luck, for though the tracks at times 

 were rather fresh and success seemed imminent, 

 yet after eight or ten hours' tramping the Siamese 

 usually decided the game had passed into another 

 section and was too far to reach for " that day." 

 The day never seemed long enough for us to reach 

 game. There was plenty of the little muntjac deer, 

 with its reddish coat, white marked breast and 

 rump and dog-like tenor bark. The natives call this 

 deer by blowing a leaf, making a bleating noise 

 somewhat like that caused by blowing on a blade 

 of grass between the hands. But it is a skulker 

 and not so easy to kill, though many opportunities 



