NO ROYAL ROAD TO SPORT 275 



perhaps also be as well to inform the sportsman that should 

 he receive permission to shoot one or two elephants, he should 

 not be in too great a hurry to slaughter the first small tusker 

 or female he comes across, as there are plenty of very fine 

 tuskers to be met with in Burma, and if his trackers and 

 hunters are worth their salt he will soon come across one of 

 these monsters. 



It must be understood that game, however plentiful, will 

 not be found unless a good deal of trouble, one way or 

 another, is taken by the sportsman. Some men who are not 

 particularly keen go out for a day or two, and because they 

 happen to have bad luck in not coming across anything, they 

 return in disgust to their head-quarters dissatisfied with them- 

 selves for having ventured out into the jungle, and vowing 

 vengeance on those who have misled them into believing that 

 there was game. Such is not the case with the true, keen 

 sportsman, however unsuccessful he may be. However plen- 

 tiful the game, all men have disappointing days. I have 

 often been out in jungle teeming with gaur, elephant, and 

 wild cattle and other game, and on several occasions for two 

 or three days at a time have failed in even catching sight of 

 an animal. But I have always stuck to it in the hopes of 

 eventually coming up with something, be it only a fresh track, 

 and have eventually been rewarded on the third or fourth day 

 by obtaining several shots. 



It is, as I have already stated, those men who are not very 

 keen who give it up early, those who cannot do without their 

 " pegs " during the day. These are not the men who will 

 follow a wounded tusker elephant, solitary bull pyoung, or 

 tsine for twenty miles or more, and then come up with it and 

 administer the coup de grace. I have been out with some 

 men who, after marching all day under a hot sun without 

 seeing any signs of game, have turned round in a sudden fit 

 of rage upon their unfortunate shikaries, and rated them 

 severely, simply because no game had been seen, as if his 

 men were really to blame for that, and could tell to within a 

 mile or two where animals would be found grazing or lying 

 up for the day. Burmans are very independent, and a sports- 

 man will find that it is always best to keep his temper with 



