HUNTING WITH THE KARENS 91 



watching waterholes for the drinking beasts; and 

 they do not much of this for they are not a meat- 

 eating people. 



In a word, the new men engaged were of mighty 

 little service to me except as burden bearers ; and 

 so far as increasing the efficiency of my party, I 

 was no better off after my visit to the Karen village 

 than before. My immediate " hunting " force 

 continued unchanged, and consisted of the Sia- 

 mese, Thee, Nuam and Wan, who had been secured 

 by Phra Ram as the best three in all the country. 

 And that was true enough, for although a long 

 ways from being good hunters, they were really 

 about the only natives I met in Siam who pre- 

 tended to have any jungle hunting experience; 

 and, except for Wan, even their knowledge went 

 no farther than chance gossip. Thee's chief occu- 

 pation was courting the ladies of the jungle and of 

 the villages; the moment we crossed the trail of 

 the eternal feminine Thee was lost to our party. I 

 always hoped he was more capable, not to say suc- 

 cessful, in this field than he was in the one where 

 I paid for his experience. All three carried muz- 

 zle-loading guns which had been presented to them 

 at Ratburi by the chief; but only Wan possessed 

 any markmanship whatever. Phra Ram had in 

 fact laid in a stock of such guns for distribution 

 to the distinguished among the jungle stragglers 



