BLACK BEAR HONKING 197 



selected, and each given a slip of paper bearing my 

 signature; for, when they should come for their 

 wages at the end of the day, I did not wish to have 

 the friends and relatives of the beaters, as well as 

 the beaters themselves, turning up for payment. 



The din these fifty souls succeed in making as they 

 move in a long line up the centre and two sides of 

 a wooded nullah, shrieking, howling, cat-calling, 

 setting off fire-crackers, and beating tom-toms, is 

 enough to drive any self-respecting bear out of his 

 seven senses. An army of battle-shouting dervishes 

 could hardly create a greater uproar, nor is it at all 

 surprising that the bear should find a pressing en- 

 gagement elsewhere at the earliest possible moment 

 after finding his nullah thus rudely invaded. If he 

 turns down the nullah, he encounters the invading 

 army ; if he tries to escape by the sides, he is met and 

 driven back by beaters already posted. Therefore 

 he does the most natural thing in the world by flee- 

 ing up the centre of the nullah directly away from 

 the oncoming din. At the top of the cleft stands the 

 sportsman. The thickness of the undergrowth prob- 

 ably prevents the sportsman's seeing the bear or the 

 bear seeing him until they actually meet. Hence 

 the excitement. 



I regret to say that in spite of Kadera's assertion 

 that bears would be so thick in this country as prac- 



