4 io WILD SPORTS OF BURMA AND ASSAM 



downwards. Others are engaged re-arranging their hair and 

 tying up their " gaung baungs " or turbans, whilst some lie 

 down at full length on the ground to rest themselves. Driving 

 is hard, hot, thirsty work for the men, and the sportsman must 

 take care not to overwork them or lose his patience, or he will 

 find it very hard to obtain their services again. Government 

 officials, as a rule, do not pay villagers for beating jungle, as it 

 is often voluntarily done and payment is not wanted or asked 

 for. The greater portion of the meat of the animals shot is 

 usually made over to them as their portion. Should no game 

 have been bagged, however, and the sportsman had several 

 shots, it is advisable to divide Rs.5 or Rs.io amongst the 

 beaters according to the number employed. It enables them 

 at any rate to buy cheroots for themselves. The sportsman, 

 should he be driving in a locality where game is plentiful, will 

 sometimes have bear and leopard driven out to him, and on rare 

 occasions a tiger. I remember an instance of one of the latter 

 being driven out by beaters, when only sambur and barking 

 deer were expected. The incident which I am about to relate 

 happened near the village of Sagadaung in the Momeik State, 

 Ruby Mines district. Tom Dobson of the Police, as keen a 

 sportsman and as good a shot as is to be found anywhere in 

 the country, had during a beat wounded a sambur. The 

 animal, which was hard hit, managed to get away into an 

 adjoining cover. The beaters, some twenty men in all, 

 proceeded to beat out this thicket, while Dobson took up a 

 position at the far end. 



Dobson, who was only armed with a 12-bore shot-gun, did 

 not of course expect to come upon a tiger so near the village. 

 His right chamber was loaded with 3 drams of powder and a 

 Meade shell, whilst his left contained the same charge of 

 powder but a solid spherical bullet. The beaters had hardly 

 begun when the tiger appeared suddenly on the scene within 

 a few yards of Dobson. I think that at the time the 

 latter was seated on a log smoking a cigarette. At any rate 

 the tiger halted on seeing Dobson, and so composed was the 

 latter, that he cogitated whether it would not be advisable to 

 fire the left barrel first instead of the right one, the solid ball 

 being more effective than the Meade explosive shell. 



