HUNTING WITH THE KARENS 105 



crashing up the line, jumping in ahead of Wan. 

 Then I smote him— hard and recurringly. While 

 I thus bade him be good another something, which 

 we discovered later to be a red ox, jumped up and 

 away, crashing and smashing, into the jungle. 

 With the Karen again in the rear we went on, and 

 soon were on the buffalo tracks. For three hours 

 we followed these through dense jungle, finally 

 over a hill, and practically all the time moving 

 down wind. Suddenly again the buffalo; he got 

 our wind and bolted. Could not have been over 

 fifteen or twenty yards off, though we could not 

 see ten. Three hours later, after hard, patient 

 tracking, with Wan in the lead using his parang 

 very carefully, we again started the buffalo. 

 Again he got our wind. At none of these times 

 could we see the beast, although so close to him. 

 To get that near to the same buffalo four times in 

 one day may have reflected creditably upon our 

 tracking, but was extremely disappointing, none 

 the less. Such conditions made scoring impossi- 

 ble ; you may not take advantage of the wind ; you 

 must simply follow the tracks and circle round 

 and round or straight away wherever they lead 

 you. You make, of course, very little headway, 

 consuming a lot of time in you patient plodding, 

 for you must literally cut your way. Without the 

 experience one can scarcely imagine the strain of 



