22 BIG-GAME SHOOTING IN UPPER BURMA 



at court in the person either of the Deputy 

 Commissioner, the Assistant Commissioner, the 

 Sub-divisional Officer, or the Deputy Super- 

 intendent of Police. If elephants are on the 

 rampage reports will assuredly be brought in, 

 together with applications from the villagers 

 for guns and ammunition. Before the men get 

 back to their villages the elephants will probably 

 have departed to fresh woods and pastures new, 

 and the guns will be utilised for shooting deer. 

 But they will be issued none the less, in view of 

 the likelihood of the elephants returning sooner 

 or later. This is the time for the sportsman 

 to get ' khubbar.' Burmans, like all Orientals, 

 are very dilatory in their movements, and if 

 the sportsman seizes his opportunity he will 

 be able to forestall them, arriving at the scene 

 of action long before they are back in their 

 respective villages. It should be borne in mind 

 that when they do get back, they will not confine 

 themselves to firing from their ' tehs ' in the 

 paddy-fields at night, but will march in a body 

 to the jungle where the elephants are resting, 

 and will scare the herd by firing volleys on the 

 outskirts of the cover. The elephants will, of 

 course, retreat, for perhaps twenty miles or more, 

 and though they will return later on, since no 

 real damage has been done, the sportsman's 

 chance for the time being will have vanished 

 with the elephants. It is therefore a great 

 advantage to be first in the field. Guns may 



