228 SPORT AND TRAVEL 



care of a yellow pirate in a dilapidated junk, and set 

 sail for the shore. 



It was a few days later that I found myself in a 

 snug little village, Chi Phaw by name, tucked away 

 at the foot of the hills, with the flooded padi-fields 

 skirting it on one side, and to the west a pagoda- 

 crowned mountain, towering like a sentinel above 

 far too peaceful a scene to suggest the sport on 

 which I had come. 



As the guest of the village, in that I was to do my 

 little best in ridding them of a nuisance, I was led up 

 the central path through a staring and wondering 

 crowd of peasants, who were unaccustomed to 

 seeing white men and had no modesty about show- 

 ing it, among innumerable black hogs enjoying con- 

 tinuous and undisturbed slumber along the high-' 

 way, and past the rude hovels, within which hens, 

 babies, dogs, and kittens sprawled promiscuously. 

 We came, at the end of the village, to a remarkable 

 looking building a sort of large shed with arched 

 roof and paved floor, with one side opening to a 

 courtyard flanked by a ten-foot wall, which, though 

 ordinarily a temple sacred to the common ancestor 

 of the village, was now, I learned, to be my habita- 

 tion for as long as I cared to remain. It proved on 

 inspection to be a very filthy lodging : much debris 

 had to be swept from the floor, and several huge 



