116 SPORTING AND 



round the corner, when the sentry came 

 up to the entrance, but no suspicion 

 seemed to have crossed his mind, for he 

 passed on while we kept a little in front of 

 him. 



My guide now pressed my hand en- 

 couragingly, and ran to the back of an 

 adjoining hut, and I was not slow in fol- 

 lowing ; we crept on, dodging behind 

 everything that could screen us from the 

 sentinel's sight, and in this way walked 

 safely out of the village. We then made 

 for a tall tree a few hundred yards distant, 

 and, on reaching it, found ready for our 

 use, two native ponies, or tattus, held by a 

 sai's, or native horsekeeper ; my guide 

 quickly jumped on one, and I on the 

 other; we rode off at first at a walk, or 

 amble, at which pace the native ponies 

 excel, gradually increasing the pace to a 



