354 PORTAGE OF HEADS. 



otherwise tliey are apt to stick to " light-fingered " hands 

 like needles to a magnet. 



The best kind of camp-bed is that made like the native's 

 common " charpai " (bedstead, literally meaning four legs), 

 constructed so that the side and end poles can be removed 

 from the holes made for them in the legs. A piece of 

 strong " durrie " (coarse Indian canvas) is laced tightly to 

 one of the end and one of the side poles, the other two 

 having first been passed through loops made to receive 

 them by doubling over the canvas, thereby saving time and 

 trouble in lacing. The great advantage of such a bed is 

 its simplicity, as, if a pole is broken, it can easily be re- 

 placed with a stick from the nearest wood ; besides its con- 

 venience of transport. 



For whatever else in the way of travelling equipments 

 the sportsman may deem necessary, I may refer him to 

 * Galton's Art of Travel ' and ' Hints to Travellers,' pub- 

 lished by the Eoyal Geographical Society. But the less he 

 takes with him, beyond what is absolutely required, the 

 better, more especially on the higher ranges, where carriage 

 for his traps and his trophies is often difficult to obtain. 



The following will be found a good way of dealing 

 with large-horned heads, as rendering them more portable. 

 When skinning a head, which should be cut off as near 

 the trunk as possible without disfiguring the rest of the 

 skin, commence by slitting up the skin on the top of the 

 neck towards the nape, almost as far as the space between 

 the burrs. From thence cut a short lateral slit to the base 

 of each horn. Then peel off the skin bodily from the neck 

 and head, severing the cartilages of the ears from the head 

 as they are reached. After the skull has been thoroughly 

 cleaned, and the lower jaw removed from it, saw it in two 

 down the centre. When required to be set up, the divided 

 skull is refastened together and the lower jaw replaced. 

 The skin of the head should be well rubbed, more especially 

 about the roots of the ears and the lips, with salt and wood- 



