NOTES BY AN OLD SPORTSMAN 295 



down specific rules where circumstances 

 must to a great extent influence individual 

 action, but the following hints will perhaps 

 prove useful as a general guide on occasions 

 of the kind. 



Hostility on the part of the Natives. 

 Sportsmen in this or neighbouring pro- 

 vinces will seldom come across a town 

 or village in which the population itself 

 will be found positively hostile. But 

 they are liable everywhere to meet with 

 disbanded soldiers, braves, and unemployed 

 rowdies, and these men are very apt to 

 incite the mob to be aggressive and trouble- 

 some. A good general rule is to avoid 

 loitering about large villages altogether. 

 But at times even the smallest populations, 

 as for instance, those of the Ta-sze-jao dis- 

 trict, will contain an element of hostility 

 traceable more or less to the presence or 

 influence of such men. 



The wisest course a sportsman can pursue 

 when he observes signs of an uneasy or 

 angry feeling, is to make the best of his 

 way out of the vicinity, even at the hazard 

 of a few brickbats being sent after him. 

 But this is not always practicable, and a 

 useful alternative is to distract attention 



