150 WILD SPORTS OF BURMA AND ASSAM 



the reeds, which is also very irritating. We got out of the heavy 

 grass and through a quin, then through a belt of trees that 

 fringed the Koonchoung which we crossed. We then saw 

 several tracks ; as one seemed fresher than the other, I told 

 my man to stick to it, and in half-an-hour came upon five 

 gaur lying down chewing the cud under the few trees that were 

 there. We had approached so silently that they only saw us 

 when we were almost on them. I fired at the nearest a 

 cow ; the herd sprang up and were off, but not before I 

 caught the bull a crack, and one more ball finished the cow. 

 The mahout cut her throat and declared she was hal-lal-ed, 

 that is, lawful to be eaten, but she was dead as a herring 

 before he approached her. I had her flayed, and took her 

 tongue, a strip of the hump, and the marrow-bones for myself. 

 The mahout took enough meat for the whole camp, and tied 

 it on behind my howdah. Before we had gone a yard, down 

 came the vultures first in ones and twos then in tens and 

 twenties and soon in hundreds. At times we found them 

 a perfect nuisance : they used to follow us about flying 

 ahead, lighting on the topmost branches of the trees, and the 

 flapping of their wings disturbed the whole country and 

 frightened game away ; thus proving, from their greediness, 

 their own enemies. Had they remained in the sky, they 

 would have got far more pickings. I once threw out a very 

 large tiger, and in eight minutes there was not a particle of 

 meat left on the bones. We reached our camp at 4 p.m. and 

 found our baggage animals had arrived before us ; they too 

 had seen gaur and wild elephants. The villagers complained 

 that three men, woodcutters, had been killed by bears lately, 

 but they did not know where those beasts lived. 



April 21. We made for Myetquin. We lost much time 

 looking for a rhinoceros, which the people said was always 

 about Ananbo, but we failed to make his acquaintance. We 

 saw plenty of hinds, but it was useless shooting them here, 

 as we had plenty of meat and could get as many as we 

 wanted at Myetquin. Out of one patch, not 20 yards square, 

 I put out three sambur and a tiger ; he had been rolling 

 in the ashes of the grass fires, and I did not recognize him 

 for a feline till he was all but out of shot. I hunted him for 



