He insisted upon our taking breakfast with him, and he
accordingly commenced his preparations. Borrowing one of our
hunting-knives, two of his men gave chase to a kid and cut its head off.
Half an hour afterwards we were eating it in various forms, all of which
were excellent.
We had thus travelled over forty-four miles of country from Minneria
without killing a single head of game. Had we remained a week in the
district through which we had passed so rapidly, we must have had most
excellent sport. All this was the effect of being hurried for time.
In the neighbourhood of Doolana I had killed many elephants some years
ago, and I have no doubt we could have had good sport at this time; but
V. Baker's leave was so fast expiring, and the natives' accounts of the
distance through the Veddah country were so vague, that we had no choice
except to push straight through as fast as we could travel, until we
should arrive on the Batticaloa path.
We took leave of our friend the Rhatamahatmeya; he had provided us with
good trackers, who were to accompany us through the Veddah country to
the 'Park'; but I now began to have my doubts as to their knowledge of
the ground.
