WILD DOGS 401 



and fired at them with his revolver in the hope of bagging 

 one. The " gyi," which had not, if I remember rightly, been 

 badly injured, received the bullet instead, and the dogs unfor- 

 tunately escaped scot free. 



Richardson, when telling me about it afterwards, said that 

 the deer's skin had been scored in a dozen different places by 

 the teeth of the dogs, but was otherwise uninjured. 



I have gone out, during the hot weather on many occasions, 

 after big game mounted on a pony and accompanied by two 

 of my shikaries, who were also mounted. A great deal of 

 ground can be covered in this manner in a short space of time, 

 and it always enabled me to return to my house early enough 

 for a warm tub and dinner. Tagaung, my head-quarters, was 

 a very convenient place for shooting of this kind. It was 

 always a very easy matter for me to ride out in the morning, 

 provided, of course, I had no very important work on hand, 

 bag a solitary tusker elephant or a gaur or two, and ride back 

 to Tagaung in the evening none the worse, in time to change 

 for dinner. Many men overdo the thing on foot, and not 

 only knock themselves up, but lay themselves open to attacks 

 of fever. 



The two men, Moung Hlaing and Moung Youk, villagers 

 of Tagaung and Pongon, who used to accompany me on these 

 expeditions, could both ride fairly well. Moung Youk carried 

 my 8-bore rifle slung over his shoulders and a bag of cart- 

 ridges, Moung Hlaing was laden with three Burmese " lueaiks " 

 or satchels, containing our respective breakfasts and luncheons, 

 and their own betel-boxes and other paraphernalia. I carried 

 a single Martini-Metford rifle and a pair of binoculars. We 

 also took two leather water-bottles, or " chaguls," with us. 

 When the ground was soft the three ponies moved along 

 quite noiselessly in single file. I invariably took the lead, and 

 when one of us saw a track which looked fresh, we all dis- 

 mounted and I took the lead on foot, leaving my men to 

 follow at a respectable distance. Occasionally, I would mount 

 my pony till told we were near the animal, when I would 

 dismount again and begin the stalk. 



The pony I rode, a dark bay, would allow me to fire off its 

 back without flinching. The first time, however, that I tried 



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