Hunting
狩猎
The days of the hunter are almost over in India. This is partly because there is practically nothing left to kill, and partly because some steps have been taken, mainly by banning tiger-shooting, to protect those animals which still survive.
在印度，猎人的时代几乎结束了。一部分是因为几乎没有可猎杀的动物了，另一部分是因为已经采取了一些措施，主要是禁止射杀老虎，以保护那些仍然存活的动物。
Some people say that Man is naturally a hunter. I disagree with this view. Surely out earliest forefathers, who at first possessed no weapons, spent their time digging for roots, and were no doubt themselves often hunted by meat-eating animals.
有人说人类天生就是猎人，我不同意这种观点。毫无疑问，最早的祖先一开始没有武器，他们把时间花在挖掘根茎上，当然，自身也经常被食肉动物猎杀。
I believe the main reason why the modern hunter kills is that he thinks people will admire his courage in overpowering dangerous animals. Of course, there are some who truly believe that the killing is not really the important thing, and that the chief pleasure lies in the joy of the hunt and the beauties of the wild countryside. There are also those for whom hunting in fact offers a chance to prove themselves and risk death by design; these men go out after dangerous animals like tigers, even if they say they only do it to rid the countryside of a threat. I can respect reasons like these, but they are clearly different from the need to strengthen your high opinion of yourself.
我相信现代猎人捕猎的主要原因是他认为人们会钦佩他战胜危险动物的勇气。当然，有些人确实认为狩猎本身并不重要，主要在于狩猎的乐趣和荒野乡村的美景。还有一些人，狩猎实际上为他们提供了一个证明自己的机会，甘意冒死亡的危险；这些人外出追捕老虎等危险动物，即使他们说他们这样做只是为了消除农村的威胁。我可以尊重这样的理由，但它们显然不同于提升自我评价的需要。
The greatest big-game hunters expressed in their writings something of these finer motives. One of them wrote.
有人写道，最伟大的大型猎物捕猎者有更美好的动机表达在他们的作品中。
“You must properly respect what you are after and shoot it cleanly and on the animal’s own territory. You must fix forever in your mind all the wonders of that particular day. This is better than letting him grow a few years older to be attacked and wounded by his own son and eventually eaten, half alive, by other animals, Hunting is not a cruel and senseless killing – not if you respect the thing you kill, not if you kill to enrich your memories, not if you kill to feed your people.”
“你必须适当地尊重你所追求的，在动物的领地上干净利落地射击。你必须永远记住那一天的所有奇迹。这比让它长大几岁，被自己的孩子攻击和伤害，最终被其他动物吃得半死要好得多。狩猎不是残忍和毫无意义的杀戮——如果你尊重你的猎物，狩猎只是为了丰富你的记忆，只是为了养活你的人民，那就不是。”
I can understand such beliefs, and can compare these hunters with those who hunted lions with spears and bravely caught them by the tail. But this is very different from many tiger-shoots I have seen, in which modern weapons were used. The so-called hunters fired from tall trees or from the backs of trained elephants. Such methods made tigers seem no more dangerous than rabbits.
我能理解这种信仰，并能将这些猎人与那些用长矛猎杀狮子，勇敢地抓住它们尾巴的人进行比较。但这与我见过的许多使用现代武器射杀老虎的完全不同。这些所谓的猎人从高大的树木或训练有素的大象背上开枪。这种方法使老虎看起来并不比兔子更危险。
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