Sporting Trips of a Subaltern 



and letting him get away, to perhaps die miserably. 

 This, perhaps, does not apply so much in an open 

 and rideable country, where a wounded beast can 

 be soon ridden down and finished with rifle or 

 spear. 



This was the longest day we had ; it was 8 

 o'clock when I got back to camp, having started 

 before 6. 



On the third day I climbed a great hill, said to 

 be 10,000 feet, with a " dabei," or temple, on the 

 top. This temple was supposed to give immunity 

 from harm to all game on the hill below ! Very 

 absurd, of course, but I and every one with me 

 always had most fearful bad luck on " dabei," so 

 much so that though I have known game killed all 

 round, I never knew the superstition disproved. 

 My bad luck on it began that day. I was far down 

 in thick jungle, following the tracks of a gerou, 

 the big stag of these hills ; Hira was about 200 feet 

 below me, and the tiffin coolie the same above. 

 Suddenly the latter began whistling frantically. 

 I climbed up, and he pointed me out two animals 

 some 300 yards off ; I could only see bits of them 

 now and then through the trees, but they looked 

 rather like horned donkeys with bristling manes. 

 I had to negotiate some very bad ground to get 

 near them, but eventually got to about 150 yards, 

 and sat down to get my breath before firing. They 

 were, however, continually on the move in the 



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