round it, and down it came with a crash, and was bent under foot.
Sometimes a branch was too thick and strong: then the mahout drew his
dah, gave three or four chops within the width of an inch--the elephant
waiting meantime--when up would come the trunk again, and down went the
timber. These Kachin dahs must be well tempered[34] and have a fine
edge, for our mahout cut filmy creepers hanging lightly as a hair, as
easily as thick branches.

[34] I noticed later they were not ground to an edge, but shaved with
steel spoke-shave.

About ten we got to the jheel; a swamp in an open space of about sixty
acres, of water and grass; of a fresh green, surrounded by low woods.
Fresh tracks of sambhur and other deer were round it and signs of tiger;
so much big game had passed that there were deeply worn paths. I've no
doubt that by waiting there, one could have had a shot at big game
before long. It made me wish, with all my heart, for time and my 450
cordite express, and I half decided to send for it to Rangoon. Snipe was
our hope in the meantime, so we got off some clothes and plunged into
the marsh and up got snipe at our first step, and we brought down three,
and thought we were in for a great bag. But there was rather too much
water; as we went on it came well over our knees, and every now and then
up the tops of our thighs so there was too little holding ground for us
or snipe. We walked in line, laboriously, halting every now and then to
wait for one or the other to flounder out of a deep place; and when the
sun got up the glare from the water made me think of sunstroke; however,
we persevered and managed to get fourteen couple before lunch time, and
I found my American five-shooter the very thing for the work.

How I wish I had known of there being such good snipe shooting at
Mandalay, I would certainly have had a go at it there: I think 120
couple was a recent bag to one gun in twenty-four hours.

It was very odd having the elephant walking after us, it seemed so much
at home; with his length and number of legs, it could walk slowly but
comfortably where we bipeds had to struggle. As it went it twisted its
trunk round bunches of the water grass, tore them out of the water and
swished the mud off the roots by beating it to and fro across its
forelegs till it was clean, and then she stowed it down her mouth, bunch
after bunch--what an enormous quantity of food they must swallow! The
mahout on its back was in a good plac