227 
E A ST- 1 N D I A N II 0 N T I N G . 
The tune is about the beginning of December, and the diversion is 
continued till the heats, which conmience about the beginning of 
March, oblige them to stop. During this period, a circuit of be- 
tween five and six hundred miles is generally made, the hunters 
bending their course towards the skirts of the northern mountains, 
where the country is wild and uncultivated . The vizier takes along with 
him not only his court and seraglio, but a great part of the inhabi- 
taiits of his capital. His immediate attendants amount to two 
thousand, but he is also followed by five or six hundred^ horse, 
and several battalions of regular seapoys with their field-pieces ; 
four or , five hundred elephants also accompany him, of which 
some are used for riding, others for fighting, and some for 
clearing the jungles and forests of the game. About as many beau- 
tiful sumpter-horses, of the beautiful Persian and Arabian breeds; are 
taken with him. A great number of wheeled carriages, drawn by bul- 
locks, likewise attend, which are used chiefly for the convenience of 
the women. Sometimes he has an English chaise or two, and sonicr 
times a chariot, but all these are merely for show; the vizier himself 
iiever using any other conveyance than an elephant, or sometimes, 
when fatigued and indisposed, a palanquin. The animals used in the 
sport are principally about three hundred greyhounds, two hundred 
hawks, and a few trained leopards for hunting deer. There is a great 
fiumberof marksmen, whose profession it is to shoot deer, with many 
foolers, who provide game ; as none of the natives of 4ndia know 
hew to shoot game with small shot, or to hunt with slow houndsw A 
Vast number of matchlocks are carried along with the company, with 
many English pieces of various kinds, forty or fifty pairs of pistols, 
bows and arrows, besides swords, daggers, and sabres without number. 
There are also nets of various kinds, some for quails, and others very 
large for fishing, which are carried along with him upon elephants, 
attended by fishermen, so as to be always ready for throwing into any 
river pr lake that may be met with. Every article that can contribute 
to pleasure or luxury is carried along with the army. 
A great number of carts are loaded with the Ganges water, and 
even ice is transported for cooling the drink. The fruits of the 
season, and vegetables, are daily sent to him by bearers stationed at 
every ten miles, by which means each article is conveyed day and 
night at the rate of four miles an hour. There are also fighting 
antelopes, bufFal'oes, and rams in great numbers, several hundred 
pigeons, some fighting-cocks, with a great variety of parrots, night- 
ingales, &c. To complete the magnificence or extravagance of this 
expedition, there is always a large bazar, pr moving town, \vhich 
attends the camp, consisting of shopkeepers and artificers of all kinds, 
inpn y-changers, and dancing women ; so that, on the most moderate 
c;alcu)atioij, the whole number of people in his camp cannot be com- 
puted at less than twenty thousand. The nabob himself, and all the 
gentlenien of his camp, are provided with double sets of tents and 
equipage, which are always sent on the day before to the place to 
which he intends to go, and this is generally eight or ten miles in 
whatever direction game is expected ; so that by the time he has 
finished his sport in the morning, he finds his tent ready pitched for 
