2 88 WILD SPORTS OF BURMA AND ASSAM 



feeling anything but safe, and that we would much rather 

 have been lying in a canvas camp-cot beneath the shelter 

 of a good tent. I overheard various remarks made by 

 the Burmans as we were turning in, about the " nats " or 

 spirits of the woods being displeased over the death of the 

 elephant, that some one was going to be carried off that night 

 by the tiger, which was an evil spirit or " nat " in disguise. 

 A bird of bad omen amongst the Burmans called the 

 "aungwa," a species of night-hawk, I think, which is 

 never seen during the day, settled on a tree overhead and 

 uttered its disagreeable calls of " aungwa, aungwa." I have 

 seen in the Shan States or Momeik quite a number of 

 villagers turn out and endeavour with shouts, and sticks, and 

 stones to frighten away one of these birds, which had settled 

 in a clump of trees near the village. Both the Burmans and 

 Shans are very superstitious in this respect, and implicitly 

 believe that if one of these birds settles in a house or a tree 

 anywhere near and utters its peculiar cries, some person 

 within that house is sure to die before the year is out. All 

 this seemed to cause a general feeling of uneasiness amongst 

 the more nervous of the villagers and our servants. For my 

 own part, I must say I did not feel by any means comfortable, 

 lying as we were out on an open platform exposed to the 

 attack of an animal which can carry a man in its mouth and 

 make off as quickly and as easily as a cat with her kitten. 

 Our servants, muleteers, hunters, and villagers were lying 

 scattered about on the ground amongst the bushes and under 

 bamboo clumps to the rear on our right. No one was sleeping 

 to our immediate front, that is to say in the direction towards 

 which our feet were pointing. The Karen military policemen 

 and the hunters were sleeping alongside one another under 

 the shade of a huge bamboo clump on the right side of the 

 platform nearest Clements, and only some 10 or 15 yards 

 away. My dog " Jumbo," a thorough-bred pariah, which 

 had been in my possession for some eight years (now, alas, 

 no more, having been lost in the streets of Edinburgh), and 

 who was really the cause of the whole mishap, was tied to 

 the corner post of the platform at my head. The night was 

 a very dark and cloudy one. 



