ons, they prepare for attack;
but generally, after a menacing display the herd betake themselves to
flight; then forming again at a safer distance, they halt as before,
elevating their nostrils, and throwing back their heads to take a
defiant survey of the intruders. The true sportsman rarely molests them,
so huge a creature affording no worthy mark for his skill, and their
wanton slaughter adds nothing to the supply of food for their assailant.

[Footnote 1: CAREY and MARSHMAN'S Transl. vol. i. p. 430, 447.]

In the Hambangtotte country, where the Singhalese domesticate buffaloes,
and use them to assist in the labour of the rice lands, the villagers
are much annoyed by the wild ones, that mingle with the tame when sent
out to the woods to pasture; and it constantly happens that a savage
stranger, placing himself at the head of the tame herd, resists the
attempts of the owners to drive them homewards at sunset. In the
districts of Putlam and the Seven Corles, buffaloes are generally used
for draught; and in carrying heavy loads of salt from the coast towards
the interior, they drag a cart over roads which would defy the weaker
strength of bullocks.

In one place between Batticaloa and Trincomalie I found the natives
making an ingenious use of them when engaged in shooting water-fowl in
the vast salt marshes and muddy lakes. Being an object to which the
birds are accustomed, the Singhalese train the buffalo to the sport,
and, concealed behind, the animal browsing listlessly along, they guide
it by ropes attached to its horns, and thus creep undiscovered within
shot of the flock. The same practice prevails, I believe, in some of the
northern parts of India, where they are similarly trained to assist the
sportsman in approaching deer. One of these "sporting buffaloes" sells
for a considerable sum.

In the thick forests which cover the Passdun Corle, to the east, and
south of Caltura, the natives use the sporting buffalo in another way,
to assist in hunting deer and wild hogs. A bell is attached to its neck,
and a box or basket with one side open is securely strapped on its back.
This at nightfall is lighted by flambeaux of wax, and the buffalo
bearing it, is driven slowly into the jungle. The huntsmen, with their
fowling pieces, keep close under the darkened side, and as it moves
slowly onwards, the wild animals, startled by the sound, and bewildered
by the light, steal cautiously towards it in stupified fascination. Ev