THE BANTING IN UPPER BURMA 



bank of a nullah on to the prairie, I had the unusual, but 

 fortunate, experience of almost walking on to a solitary 

 bull tsine lying down, evidently asleep. He could not 

 have been fifteen paces from me. I did not, however, 

 observe him until he jumped up and was making off at a 

 gallop ; as he did so, he leapt into the air, and lashed out 

 with both his heels, evidently from disgust at having 

 been caught napping at such close quarters ; indeed, his 

 demeanour suggested that no liberties would be permitted 

 if we had fired a shot at him. This was the first tsine 

 which I had ever seen, and it was not only a grand sight at 

 such close quarters, but the appearance of the animal was 

 altogether different to that which I had previously figured 

 in my mind. I exclaimed to the " mokso," " Blue ! blue ! " 

 Now there are various shades of blue ; it was not a sky- 

 blue, nor a sea-blue, nor any blue of that kind, but the first 

 impression that arose in my mind was, " a tsine has a blue 

 hide." To analyse this blue we will call it steel-blue ; but a 

 shade must be taken out of the blue and put into the 

 steel ; it was thus very nearly approaching that of an old 

 and rather washed-out kharki coat, a colour impossible to 

 describe accurately. Some would call it a bluish-grey or a 

 whitey-grey ; the Burmese who were accompanying me 

 called it " blue," and those animals met in a herd they 

 designate " red " (their language, however, does not permit 

 of much delicacy in designating colour). A mouldy bluish- 

 grey would, I think, describe the colour as accurately as 

 any other. Only in advanced life or old age is the hide 

 of this colour, that of the young animals being rightly 

 described as a bright chestnut. The skull differs from that 

 of the bison, the forehead being flatter and the bone thicker, 

 whereas the bison's forehead is concave and the bone less 

 dense. The distinction in the horns may be thus illus- 

 trated : Holding the arms above the head so that each 

 hand is directly over the temple will represent the shape 

 of the bison's horns ; holding the arms above the head, 

 but bringing the hands lower down than in the former 

 case, will roughly represent the tsine. A more accurate 



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