MAN KILLED BY A BUFFALO. 151 



Riding down buffaloes on horseback on fairly good 

 ground is excellent sport, and when the ground is indifferent, or 

 positively bad, the sport is exciting and even dangerous, de- 

 manding the utmost care and skill to avoid great peril to 

 horse and rider. So long as the herd is on the run the danger 

 is confined mostly to the charges of wounded beasts falling 

 into the rear, and then in the case of savage bulls, or cows 

 with calves, it becomes considerable, especially on broken or 

 deep ground, on which horses cannot turn quickly at full 

 speed. So far as my own experience teaches, there are two 

 positions to be carefully avoided as extremely perilous ; one 

 is the immediate front of any animal which has fallen behind, 

 the other is close contact with one which could, with a side 

 sweep of its long horns, rip up the horse's side, or hurl the 

 rider headlong to the earth. 



First to start and afterwards to ride down a thoroughly 

 vicious bull is grand sport ; very exciting, too, is it when, dis- 

 daining flight, he meets the hunter half way. 



I was out hog-hunting with S. at Balamara, in the 

 Noakholly district, one excessively hot April day, and had 

 just returned with him to our camp at noon, tired and heated 

 with a successful morning's sport, more eager for a bath and 

 breakfast than for aught else, when some villagers brought in 

 the corpse of a man killed an hour or two before by a bull 

 buffalo, reported to have joined a small herd of tame cows, a 

 mile or two distant, and to have seriously hurt some others 

 while making unsuccessful attempts to drive him off. Loth 

 as we were to face the sun and heat again immediately, 

 we could not resist the appeal for help ; accordingly, after 

 taking some refreshment, we remounted, and, accompanied 

 by the relatives of the deceased, proceeded in the direction 

 pointed out by them. As usual, the mile or two grew to 

 be three or four, and the blazing sun had descended half- 

 way to the western horizon, beyond the sparkling waters 

 of the Megna, before a group of half a dozen buffaloes 

 was pointed out to us as that with which we had to deal 

 presently. I ought to have mentioned before that on our 



