292 WILD SPORTS OF BURMA AND ASSAM 



Here we soon rigged up sleeping berths and shelter overhead, 

 and were glad to avail ourselves of razais as covering, for the 

 air was decidedly chilly. At the elevation we were there 

 were few or no mosquitoes and no sand-flies. 



The shikarie warned us to be very quiet, as elephants and 

 gaur and occasionally tsine wandered about here, and we 

 could see from their droppings that this was rather a favourite 

 beat of theirs. So only such fires as were requisite for 

 cooking our food were lit in a secluded glen, and then by 

 8 p.m. extinguished. The night passed without disturbance. 



By 5 a.m. we were up and away. We neither ascended 

 nor descended, but went along the edge of the plateau towards 

 where the shikarie said were some salt-licks, always favourite 

 resorts of almost all animals. Leaving the cleared spot where 

 we had rested, we entered into a gloomy forest consisting of 

 sal and buttress trees ; from the latter an oil or varnish is 

 extracted. These monarchs are of immense girth and height, 

 often 100 to 150 feet above the ground without a single 

 branch ; the roots grow out of the main stem fully 5 or 6 

 feet, and form buttresses which extend to some distance before 

 disappearing into the ground. On the lower lateral branches 

 there are often huge bee-hives pendant, many of them 7 

 or 8 feet long by 3 or 4 in depth. These attract the bears, 

 that climb up the trees by sticking their claws into the soft 

 bark, and thus rob the bees of their store of food. 



The Burmese and Karens copy these beasts ; fill a haver- 

 sack with bamboo pegs, drive one in, rest on that, drive 

 another higher up, and so on, till they reach the site of the 

 coveted prize ; they then smoke the bees until they are stupid 

 and partially unconscious, and then walk off with the honey. 

 The process of thus climbing seems hazardous in the extreme, 

 but an accident seldom happens. 



Besides these trees there were stupendous clumps of both 

 the male and female bamboos ; the former are much prized for 

 shafts for hog-spears, and the latter are converted into a 

 thousand and one articles, in fact an entire house, including 

 the roofing, is often made from bamboos alone many of 

 them are 3 feet in circumference and make capital buckets. 



From an inspection of the country I came to the conclusion, 



