oungyi does
not judge.

We then entered the kaing grass of which we had seen so much from the
steamer and realised the difficulty of getting at game in this country.
For miles we rode along a narrow path and these reeds were high over our
heads, and as we sat we were about ten or eleven feet from the
ground![33] Tiger, gaur, deer, elephant and many other kinds of big game
were all in this jungly country which extends for miles, so getting a
shot at any of them is a good deal a matter of luck, or time. I expect
it was lucky that we did not see anything but the tracks of these
beasts, for I think my companion would have tried his small bore at
anything. We had a certain anxiety about Gaur, miscalled Bison, for our
steed had been badly gored by one--its hind quarters showed the
scars--and it was warranted to bolt when it winded them, in which event
we would probably have got left, as the reeds and branches would have
cleared us off the pad. For five miles we followed the lane in the
grass, and passed two Burmans, midway, carrying fruit; they dodged into
the reed stems and let us pass and laughingly admitted they were afraid.
Here and there we came to a place where we could see over the top of the
savannah for a mile or two and expected to spot deer or elephant in the
park-like scenery, till we remembered the depth of the grass.

[33] Col. Pollock says the grass of these savannahs runs from ten to
thirty feet high--"Wild Sports of Burmah and Assam."

The slow action of our steed made me think we were getting only slowly
over the ground, but I noticed the men behind had pretty hard walking to
keep up with us. After an hour or so, we turned off the path and trod
down a road for ourselves through the reeds, and came to jungle of trees
and undergrowth, with heavy foliaged creepers growing up the trees and
from branch to branch, and air roots hanging from aloft, straight as
bell ropes--up and down--into creeks, below undergrowth and out into the
open again; the elephant being judge of where the ground would bear us,
gingerly putting out its great tender feet, sinking deep into mud,
making us cling on to the back stays of the pad, then dragging its feet
out of the soft mud with a loud sucking sound, leaving great holes
slowly filling up with black water. When a tree stump came in our path
he would very deliberately crush it down with a rending sound, or if a
big branch barred our way, up came the great trunk and slowly folded