A PILGRIMAGE 85 



pilgrimage and reached the Karens on the border 

 I was not likely to get much game. The Karens 

 I had heard were accustomed to hunting and were 

 experienced in the jungle, whereas the Siamese we 

 had, and were rapidly acquiring, knew nothing of 

 the jungle beyond the beaten paths or the sections 

 immediately near their settlements. So I made a 

 virtue of necessity and became reconciled, abiding 

 the time we should reach the Karens. Meanwhile, 

 during the closing days of the court's circuit, the 

 best sport I had was with peacock, which, as I 

 learned, is a mighty difficult bird to get. I had fan- 

 cied it easy until I tried. Seldom do you see the bird 

 during the day, for it is wary and very rarely takes 

 to wing, relying upon its hearing and legs ; and in 

 confidence as it well may, for it runs swiftly where 

 you make way slowly and with much labor. There- 

 fore you listen for the catlike call with which the 

 cock invariably announces his flight to the roosting 

 tree at dusk. He is too high, as he soars swiftly, to 

 reach on wing with a shot gun, even if you see him 

 in flight, and too indistinct a mark in the gathering 

 darkness for the rifle; so you watch where he 

 alights, if you can, or you guess it if you have not 

 seen, as most likely you have not, and then you 

 quietly camp under that tree until dawn. The 

 chances are that you are under the wrong tree, 

 and that while you are trying to locate the bird in 



