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On one occasion another chief resolutely refused to proceed on a journey through the jungle when a mouse-deer, PLANDOK, crossed his path; he will not eat this deer at any time. The people of Miri, who also are Mohammedan Malanaus, claim to be related to the large deer, CERVUS EQUINUS, and some of them to the muntjac deer also.
Heller and I started with four natives shortly after daylight. We crossed a tumbledown wooden bridge over the river at a narrow cañon where the sides were straight walls of rock, and followed down the gorge for about two miles. On the way Heller, who was in front, saw two muntjac standing in the grass on an open hillside, and shot the leader.
Our traps, however, yielded no new species, although we secured dozens of specimens every night. There were a few families of Lolos about two miles away and these were engaged as hunters. They told us that serow and muntjac were abundant and that wapiti were sometimes found on the mountains several miles to the northward.
"We want something we can get our teeth into. No, we expect a khakur from you." "What's a khakur?" asked Frank. "It's the muntjac or barking deer," replied Dermot. "You wouldn't know it if you haven't shot in forests. It gets its English name from its call, which is not unlike a dog's bark." "Whin ye hear one saying 'Wonk!
They said that there were many serow, goral, muntjac and some wapiti in the forests above the village, and we could well believe it, for there was never a more "likely looking" spot. Although the men did not claim to be professional hunters, nevertheless they said that they had good dogs and had killed many muntjac and other animals.
Just below our camp in a pretty little valley a half dozen families of Lisos were living, and we hired the men to hunt for us. They were good-natured fellows, as all the natives of this tribe seem to be, and worked well. One day they brought in a fine muntjac buck which had been killed with their crossbows and poisoned darts.
The calls and appearances of various birds and of the MUNTJAC are of chief importance. Some of these are good, some bad in various degrees. When a preponderance of favourable omens has been observed, the men return to the house to announce their success. They will wait two whole days if necessary to secure a favourable result.
In the glades and park-like openings that diversify the great forests of the interior, the spotted Axis troops in herds as numerous as the fallow deer in England: but, in journeys through the jungle, when often dependent on the guns of our party for the precarious supply of the table, we found the flesh of the Axis and the Muntjac a sorry substitute for that of the pea-fowl, the jungle-cock, and flamingo.
On one of our hunts my wife and I discovered a water hole in the midst of a dense jungle where the mud was trodden hard by sambur, muntjac, wild boar, and other animals. We decided to spend a night watching beside it, but the "Dying Rabbit" who was enthusiastic in the day time lost his courage as the sunlight waned. Very doubtfully he consented to go.
On the soft ground our feet are noiseless and, extinguishing the lanterns, we sit on a log to listen to the night sounds. The woods are full of life. Almost beside us there is a patter of tiny feet and a scurry among the dry leaves; a muntjac barks hoarsely on the opposite hillside, and a fox yelps behind us in the forest.
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