220 
EAST“INDIAN HUNTING. 
if the carriage deviates to the right or left, the traveller is plunged 
into an abyss of snow. In less frequented parts, where there is no 
such beaten road, the Laplander directs his course by certain marks 
made on the trees. Hunting being the chief occupation of the Laplan- 
ders, they perform it in various ways. In summer they hunt the wild 
beasts with small dogs trained to the diversion. In winter they 
pursue them by their tracks upon the snow, skating with so great a 
velocity, that they often run down the prey. They catch ermines in 
traps, and sometimes with dogs. They kill squirrels, martens, and 
sables with blunt darts, to avoid wounding the skin. Foxes and 
beavers are slain with sharp-pointed darts and arrows ; in shooting 
which, they are accounted the best marksmen in the world. The 
larger beasts, such as bears, w'olves, elks, and wild rein-deer, they 
either kill with fire-arms purchased in Sweden and Norway, or take 
in snares and pits. 
Their game laws are observed with great punctuality. The beast 
becomes the property of the man in whose snare or pit he is caught ; 
and he who discovers a bear’s den, has the exclusive privilege of hunt- 
ing him to death. The conquest of a bear is the most honourable 
achievement that a Laplander can perform, and his flesh is esteemed 
the greatest delicacy. The bear is despatched with a fusil, some- 
times laid as a snare, ready cocked and primed; but more frequently 
by the hunter, who runs the most imminent risk of his life, should he 
miss his aim. The death of a bear is celebrated by the Laplander 
as a signal victory. The carcase is drawn to the cabin or hut of the 
victor by a rein-deer, which is kept sacred from any other work for 
a whole year, for this service. The bear is surrounded by a great 
number of men and women, reciting a song of triumph ; then they 
express their acknowledgment to God, that he has created beasts 
for the use of men, and endued mankind with strength and courage 
to overcome and attack the fiercest of them. The hero is saluted by 
the women, who spit chewed elder bark in his face. He is feasted 
three days successively, and his cap is decorated with an additional 
figure wrought in tin wire. 
East Indian Methods of Hunting. 
Hunting was a favourite diversion of the bloody conqueror 
Jenghiz Khan, if indeed the word diversion can be applied to a 
monster whose mind was set upon the destruction of his owm spe- 
cies, and who only endeavoured to make the murder of brutes sub- 
servient to that of men, by keeping his soldiers in a state of warfare 
with the beasts, when they bad no human enemies to contend with. 
His expeditions were conducted on a plan similar to that of the Mexi- 
cans already mentioned ; and were, no doubt, attended with still 
greater success, as his numerous army could enclose a much greater 
space than all the Indians the Spanish viceroy could muster. The 
East Indian princes still shew the same inclination to the chase ; and 
Mr. Blanc, who attended the hunting excursions of Asoph U1 Dow^ah, 
vizier of the Mogul empire, and nabob of Oude, in 1785 and 1786, 
gives the following account of the method practised on this occasion. 
