SPORT IN BRITISH BURMAH.*
Alsruouen works on sport in India and Africa are so numerous as to have become absolutely tiresome,, some of them, too, evincing a blood-thirstiness which is repellent to most natures, while others are so evidently the work of writers of the Mun- chausen type that it is impossible to give credence to a tithe of their contents, there is yet room for a ,work like the present, that, embodying the results of twenty-six years' wanderings, takes us into provinces which, up to the present time, have been but seldom visited, and gives us some faithful descriptions of the people and scenery, dwelling more especially on the wild animals to be found in their jungles, with the best modes of under- taking their pursuit. Colonel Pollok tells us that having found it most difficult to obtain trustworthy information concerning the whereabouts of game in British Burmah, Assam, and the Cassyah and Jyntiah Hills, he has put together the knowledge gained from personal experience, giving very often an unaltered page from the journal in which he faithfully recorded each day the different kinds of sport in which he had taken part, leaving to the sensational writer to concoct the highly coloured narrative which finds so much favour with the uninitiated. For his illustrations, too, he claims the same carefulness and accuracy, and, indeed, it is easy to see that they are not fancy sketches, although one or two singular situations are depicted in them. Following in the steps of his father and grandfather, the writer went to India at the age of sixteen, and, although the year when he did so, 1848, is not so very far removed from our own day, ho evidently looks upon it as a portion of the " good old time " when the Indian Army had an individuality of its own, and when what ho styles "the philanthropical dodge" had not yet been brought forward, In those days the idea of equal rights for conquering and conquered races had scarcely been started, and mon were at liberty to behave to the native in most respects as seemed good. to them. Colonel Pollok de- plores the absence of such liberty at present in regard to the " savages " of Assam, and heartily wishes that Russians, Prussians, Yankees, or French, could. occupy that province and Bengal, and teach the people a lesson!—the grievance being that coolies are scarcely to be had, and that the Hindoo mouzadars very properly refuse to impress ryots. 'Unfor- tunately, however, they make no difficulty about seizing upon the unfortunate Cacharees, and bringing them a dis- tance of perhaps twenty miles, before taking up their loads ; no wonder,' therefore, that they grumble. Colonel Pollok advises no one to start on a shooting-trip into Assam who can- not muster elephants enough to be. altogether independent of manual labour ; but this advice is given not for the good of the native, but for the sportsman's own convenience.
With Tenasserim, Pegu, and Arrakan, the provinces now designated as British Burmah, the author seems to have been much delighted, and he says that Dr. Mason's poetic description of that country is folly borne out. Of its mineral riches he also speaks, as well as of the extreme loveliness of its trees and flowers ; while its rivers and coast are described as abounding with many varieties of delicious fish, and the forests and plains as teeming with birds and mammals, the delight alike of the sportsman and of the naturalist. The climate, too, is exceed-
ingly favourable to the culture of some kinds of crops, in par- ticular of the tea-plant; which suffers so much in Assam from
the hot winds, which are unknown in Burmah. Of the people Colonel Pollok speaks in terms of decided praise, giving them credit both for intelligence and for a greater degree of morality than is usually met with amongst Orientals. "There is no prettier sight anywhere," says the author, "than a crowd of Burmese gathered round a pagoda on a gala-day, what with their gay dresses, pretty figures, pleasant faces, banners streaming, flags flying, and the beauty of the scenery, as they stream along the road to some sacred shrine, all as merry as crickets, and all thoroughly enjoying themselves." It is however very difficult to discover the game in Burmah, because the shikarees are unwilling to accompany Euro- peans, and do not like having their jungles disturbed unless they have been distinctly made to understand that the
sportsman is their friend, and that it will be to their own profit to facilitate his operations. In that event, their keen sight is of good service, and they are 'useful as guides ; but they are not good trackers, and have, we are told, no real knowledge of ehiltar. Colonel Pollok seems to be a thorough lover of the • Aped fir Britiola Drirmah, dream, and 151 Casorth and lyntfah Hills. By Lieutenant-Colonel Pollok. With Illustrations. 2 vols. London: eltapmanand Hall. ehase,but is as ready to walk through the paddy-fields after snipe, or to shoot imperial pigeons with his faithful dog Roger, as to follow the tiger, the elephant, the rhinoceros, and the bison, or to enjoy what he considers the best sport of all, a good day's pig- sticking. Roger, by the way, wasa well-bred spaniel, who became an excellent retriever, and his end was very touching, for so great was the dog's attachment to his master, that he actually died of joy on seeing him after an absence of some weeks, 'during the whole of which time he had refused to be comforted, and had sat waiting for him under his office-chair. The Colonel coutends that the idea that snipe- shooting in India is prejudicial to the health is entirely a mistake. He says that if people who pursue the long-bills choose to drink brandy, smoke incessantly, wear linen, and sit in their wet clothes under a punkah when they get home, they must.expect to be ill; but for the healthy man, who is commonly prudent, not only no harm, but positive benefit, will be derived from following such sport. In fact, he says, it is not the men of active disposition who suffer from an Indian climate, but those of a sedentary habit ; and in his chapter on camp life, he gives some excellent advice as to how the sportsman ought to manage himself. For one thing, he advises him to give up the idea of fagging all day, and always to rest, like the game itself, at least in the hot weather, between the hours of ten and three, after which, exertion may be recommenced with increased success. In this same chapter, the author also gives many use- ful hints about guns, fishing-tackle, and other matters of equip- ment. Elephant-hunting naturally takes a prominent place in Colonel Pollok's pages ; he gives some good stories, which gener- ally relate to the prowess and hairbreadth escapes of his friends and brother-officers in following the noble game. He says that the Asiatic elephants should be divided into two classes, the Goondas, those that have large tusks, and the Mucknahs, or those that have none, or only rudimentary ones ; the two kinds seldom herding together, and having peculiarities of formation which render them very distinct, although they do not seem to have been noticed by other writers. The mrucknah is usually taller and more bulky-than the tusker, and has a longer and very ponderous • trunk. While some animals of this kind are absolutely without tusks, most of them have short, sharp ones, growing down- wards, like those of the walrus, with Which they can inflict most formidable blows. Colonel Pollok seems to have been greatly impressed with the sagacity of the elephant in its wild state, particularly that displayed in its choice of camping and feeding- grounds, which are often surrounded onthree sides by a tortuous river impassable to ordinary mortals, the fourth being protected by a tangled thicket or a quagmire. "'I have been an hour or more," he says, "trying to penetrate into one of their fast- nesses, where twenty or thirty elephants were congregated within a space nowhere more than 400 yards square; but so well were all the approaches protected, that at last, when I did succeed in crossing over, at the risk of either being swept away by the force of the current, or drowned in its deep bed, or bogged in the quagmires, the noise we made was sufficient to awaken the Seven Sleepers, to say nothing of disturbing a herd of elephants; and I had the pleasure of seeing them make their exit one way as I entered on the opposite side ; and once the animals were on the move, such was the intricate nature of the country, it was useless, indeed impossible, to follow them:" The Burmese and-Assamese, it seems, laugh at the European for firing only for the brain of an elephant, as they aim with considerable suc- cess at the point of the shoulder, which is one of its five vulner- able points. It is amusing to find that there is as much ras- cality practised about the sale of a tame elephant as about that of a horse, the vicious one being drugged and sold as docile, the sleepy one brighteried by the use of ginger or brandy, and the useless brute, that never carries flesh, fed up for the time with maesalahs and sugar-cane. The person accustomed. to elephants is perfectly able to judge of their state of mind by the peculiar noises they utter ; the sort of whistling from the trunk denotes satisfaction, trumpeting is a sign of rage, the striking the trunk on the ground with a pitiful cry shows alarm, and a kind of grunt is used to express impatience or dissatisfaction. Colonel Pollok gives a good deal of information as to the various ways of catching and training them, and he rather defends the mahouts from the many sins alleged against them, saying they are, as a rule, a plucky and not a bad class of men, easily managed, if treated with kindness and firmness. The pigmy hog is one of the most singular animals found by Colonel Pollok ; it inhabits Nopaul, the Terai, and sonic other parts,
but is rare and difficult to secure. It is about half as large as a hare, is very savage, and has tusks. In the Cassyah Hills, the beautiful spotted deer were met with in great numbers ; they are not to be found in Burmah. On the Coco Islands the writer had a curious adventure, which we may well believe he will not easily forget. As soon as the sun had gone down and the moon risen, thousands and thousands of rats, about the size of a bandicoot, bore down upon him, and made a raid upon his provisions, refusing to be frightened away, and devouring everything in the shape of grain or biscuit, but not touching. anything in the shape of meat. When the bags were hung up in trees, the depredators swarmed. after thorn, and would pro- bably have caused a famine, had not the convicts turned the tables upon them, by killing and eating them in great numbers,. saying that they were exceedingly sweet. These animals, which are something like the marmot, are often called. the bamboo rat. The trip up the Irrawaddie to Pagan Myo, Ava, Umrapoorah,. and Mandalay is one of the most interesting portions of Colonel Pollok's book. On this occasion, lie saw the white elephant, although he was not clad in his State trappings, covered with mag- nificent precious stones, " any one of which is worth a fortune." The animal stood about ten and a half feet high, was handsomely made, and had tusks seven feet long, which, as they all but touch the ground, required to be slightly shortened each year. The author modestly does not claim for his two volumes any literary pretension, but gives them merely as a simple record of what he saw and what he did; they are, in point of fact, very readable, and convey indirectly a good deal of information.
Previous page
