DISTURB A BEAR DURING HIS ABLUTIONS 415 



hill. I told my three followers that I would wait for them there, 

 and requested them to follow slowly and take every care of 

 my guns. I reached the bottom in about half-an-hour without 

 any mishap, and after a good drink of icy water I stretched 

 myself out under the shade of a tree to rest. I determined 

 to lie perdu when my followers put in an appearance, in 

 order to see what they would do. Waiting till they were 

 half-way down the incline, and I could hear their voices 

 distinctly, I hid myself behind a thin fringe of bushes which 

 skirted the stream within a few feet of the water's edge. The 

 men presently appeared picking their way carefully down the 

 rugged incline. One of my followers, I may remark, was 

 armed with a flint-lock gun ; as soon as they reached the 

 bottom I could see from the movements of their lips and the 

 expressions on their faces that they were wondering what had 

 become of me, but owing to the noise made by the stream, 

 which flowed close behind me, I could not hear what they 

 were saying although they were only some twenty-five paces 

 distant. All at once I was surprised to see Moung Kyun 

 Thet, the man who was carrying my 8 -bore, hand his weapon 

 hastily to one of his companions and receive in exchange the 

 flint-lock gun, which he deliberately pointed in my direction. 

 Thinking he had mistaken me for some animal and was 

 about to fire, I sprang up like a Jack-in-the-box. 



Moung Kyun Thet quickly handed back the flint-lock and, 

 seizing the 8-bore, rushed up to me with it, pointing at the 

 same time to the stream behind me, where, to my astonish- 

 ment, I saw a huge bear enjoying a bath, about 8 or 10 

 yards from the bushes behind which I had been concealed. 

 I took a steady aim for the shoulder and fired. All this was 

 only the work of a few seconds. A few short, barking roars 

 from the bear were followed by a charge up the bank straight 

 for us. The effort proved abortive, for, on reaching the top, he 

 fell backwards into the water, stone dead. All this while a 

 most ludicrous incident was taking place. One of my followers, 

 the one armed with a flint-lock gun, had accidentally disturbed 

 the nest of a small species of hornet, and the furious little 

 insects had attacked him at all points with such vigour that 

 he was unable to fire at the bear as it charged up the bank. 



