

OUR HOST DECAMPS. 247 



his suite ; since, in addition to the usual tag-rag of many 

 colours, it included a small indigenous corps-de-ballet and 

 an opera troupe, to say nothing of many cooking utensils, 

 both great and small. These festive indications were not 

 in vain, for an immediate adjournment was made for refresh- 

 ment and repose; to which end several cart-loads of queer 

 looking articles in brass, in copper, in dirty bundles and 

 prehistoric packing-cases, were handed about, and prepara- 

 tions made for a general lighting of fires. The assurance 

 that there was no necessity to occupy our posts till noon, 

 as the beaters had to come from great distances, and the 

 uncertainty as to the exact positions to be taken up, tended 

 together to depress our spirits, and to throw a little cold 

 water on our sanguine anticipations. 



In short, the whole thing proved an utter failure, and 

 the promised perfection of the organisation altogether want- 

 ing. The vaunted ten thousand beaters dwindled down 

 to as many hundreds, of whom not one half ever came up 

 to our posts on the hill-top, and the positions taken up 

 were badly chosen, so that not a single head of game 

 passed by them. Lastly, our host himself turned out an 

 arrant humbug; for after his mid -day meal, he found him- 

 self incapable of climbing the hill-side, and on discouraging 

 reports coming in of his arrangements, he and his rabble - 

 rout of attendants decamped early in the afternoon, so that 

 on descending from our posts, heated, fatigued, and dis- 

 gusted, we found them all vanished a couple of hours before, 

 afraid to face us, or to account for their failure ; and in this 

 act alone they showed some discretion at least, if not valour 

 or civility. 



The moral to be drawn from the foregoing is to avoid 

 grand circular drives, and to distrust the completeness of 

 native sporting arrangements, and the fulfilment of native 

 promises of sport. 



As before remarked, the most satisfactory drives by far 

 are those undertaken with one or two hundred picked and 

 experienced beaters, Santhals for choice, through detached 



