168 FOREST LIFE AND SPORT IN INDIA 
each animal is accompanied by two men, these can 
exercise but slight control, for the Burman does not 
sit on the elephant’s neck, but professes to direct 
him from a precarious perch on the piled-up baggage 
by means of a short bamboo spear. In these cir- 
cumstances there are likely to be many mishaps, but 
when most of the conveniences of camp-life have 
been abandoned at the start, these have little effect 
on the traveller. 
We took ponies with us, but they were little 
used,.as a foot pace was rarely exceeded on account 
of the absence of all paths save those leading from 
one village to the next; and when these did not 
serve, a way through the forest had to be hacked 
with “dahs,” the useful knives of the country. We 
generally started from our tiny tent at dawn, and 
were led by a guide who was changed at each 
village we reached ; but often he had no luck, and 
was forced to accompany us during the entire jour- 
ney. At about 10 a.m. we ate the breakfast we had 
brought with us, and then continued the march ; and 
it was often evening before the new camp was ready, 
sometimes on a spot hastily cleared in the dense 
forest, at others in a monastery courtyard or near 
a village site. In the early morning the forest was 
wet with mist, and at midday the sun beat fiercely 
down, so that it was not surprising that even 
Europeans adopted native clothing; for this is 
certainly most suitable in climatic conditions where 
the wearer is continually drenched either with dew 
and rain or with perspiration. 
The forests seemed magnificent in their vastness, 
in the size of the trees and in the dense undergrowth 
