THE BANTING IN UPPER BURMA 



sound going/ for the tsine, like the bison, always takes 

 the easiest and most level path, and not the steepest and 

 most difficult, as some men, who have never had experience, 

 are fond of asserting. It may be safely laid down that no 

 tsine or bison can go in any place where a man on foot 

 cannot follow, but there are many places where a man 

 can go and the bovine tribe could not follow. Following 

 on the tracks, we come to a depression in the ground in 

 which there are clumps of bamboo growing; the herd, 

 after spreading about this and feeding on the bamboo 

 shoots, have made their exit on to the prairie again. As 

 the sun is now hot, the probability is that the herd is lying 

 down in some dense bamboo grove similar to that through 

 which we have just come. We shall, therefore, have to 

 proceed steadily on nearing the next bamboo grove, and 

 listen carefully, for the animals, if not resting, may be 

 feeding, in which case we may expect to hear the bamboo 

 breaking. Now we get on to a well-beaten big game path, 

 which is well marked, even without the aid of the fresh 

 hoof prints. These paths often lead for many miles over 

 the prairie, connecting one tsine ground with another, and 

 passing en route through groves of bamboo and out on to 

 the open grass land again. One herd of tsine will resent 

 and forcibly oppose the intrusion of another herd on to its 

 own particular division of country, there being apparently 

 a sphere of influence allotted to each herd by the unwritten 

 code of tsine laws. Tsine are very fond of breaking small 

 trees with their horns as they pass along, and of bowling 

 over the ant-hills which the white ants make in the rainy 

 season ; this they do presumably with a view to cleaning 

 their horns as well as getting rid of the tics which cling 

 to their heads when they could not otherwise be disturbed. 

 Now we cross a small nullah where the tracks of the herd 

 show freshly, but at what hour exactly they passed it is 

 impossible to say. Going a little further, we find that the 

 herd has stampeded, but this often occurs when they are 

 stung by wasps, which make their nests in the bamboo 

 clumps, and the pursuit should not, therefore, be given up, 



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