190 WILD SPORTS OF BURMA AND ASSAM 



could sniggle in those two days as well. For a wonder, the 

 leave asked for was granted. I hurried off to a Madras 

 contractor who had some carts, and who now and then let 

 them out on hire, but he charged Rs.2 a day for the cart 

 in addition to the keep of the cattle and the pay of the cart- 

 men, and in case of an accident to either cart or bullock, I was 

 to make good the loss. 



It did not take me long to collect my impedimenta. 

 Sending word to Shoay Boh that I had obtained leave and 

 intended to start early on Saturday, I told him if he had any- 

 thing to put into my cart, to take it to my house at once. I 

 sent him a few rupees as a douceur. When everything was 

 ready for starting, I was appalled by the amount of goods the 

 shikarie had sent down they required a cart for themselves; 

 but, wishing to conciliate him, I bade my boy hurry off and 

 get another cart, and what with my own traps, and those of 

 my servants and the Burmans, I found the two carts well 

 laden. So I sent them on ahead, as Shoay Boh was taking 

 out a lot of ngapee not only for his own consumption but also 

 for sale to the villagers, and if there is one thing more offensive 

 than another it is this Burmese delicacy ! 



I sent on a syce and an extra pony to Tseben. My 

 servants would sleep there that day, Friday, and I meant to 

 ride through and have some sport on Saturday, where they 

 ought to be before me. 



I told my boy when he arrived at Lepangoung not to put 

 up in the village, but in a Zyat on a nullah, about a mile beyond. 

 I was up and away by 5 a.m. on Saturday. The country all 

 round is a dead flat, there are no made roads ; the first cart 

 of the season marks out a track which forms the highway for 

 the fine season ; during the rains it is much obliterated and 

 cut up by the commissariat elephants going for their daily 

 charah. 



My ponies were good amblers, and I got to Tseben in two 

 hours, and by nine I reached the Zyat, just after my men, but 

 my boy had a cold collation ready for me. Shoay Boh was 

 also in readiness, and told me he had sent on fifteen beaters, 

 all he could collect, to some low-lying hills, through which 

 meandered numerous water-courses which were all dry at that 



