NOTES ON A TRIP AFTER THE OVIS POLL 73 



massive head of just 50, which would have been a grand pair of horns 



in another 6 or 7 years. I let my tongue rip at him then, but 



Rahima had to pass my abuse on to him, and unfortunately could do 



very scant justice to my perfect tornado of curses, owing to his 



imperfect knowledge of the language, but he did his best? It weighed 



on my mind at first having shot this ram in a fit of temper, but that 



soon wore off when I found what an effect my outburst at Begonde 



had on him, and the other Kirghiz, for they would show me rams 



of even 58 without attempting to get me to fire at them, merely saying 



" not good enough for the Sahib ", and word was passed on ahead, so 



I had no more bother even with fresh shikaris. It was some days 



before we found a good ram, but he really was a good one, Rahima 



putting his horns at over 64, and I am sure they were all that, and 



very massive too, in fact this was the best ram I saw on the whole trip. 



Begonde had left me, having been sent for by .the Amban at Tashkur- 



gham, so I got another local man in his place, and we found a band 



of rams in the morning, but they were high up the mountain-side, 



from where they commanded the whole plain, so we returned to camp, 



going out again in the afternoon to look for them. We were riding 



slowly along the lower slopes, and had just begun to descend into a 



deep nullah, when Rahima, who was leading, suddenly threw himself 



off his yak, so I followed suit and then saw the rams only some 50C 



yards above us, coming down the opposite side of the nullah. The 



Kirghiz were very slow in grasping the situation, but did so at last, 



and we led our yak back over the ridge, and leaving them in a 



hollow, hurried back to the crest, but the rams had moved down very 



quickly, and were far below us, feeding on the plain. We could not 



move till they had fed behind a rocky ridge some 400 yards ahead of 



us, which we raced for as the last animal was disappearing, and the 



Kirghiz carrying the rifle outpaced me, reaching the ridge some way 



ahead, and then, to my horror, raised himself up to have a look over 



a boulder of rock. I saw what he was going to do, and knew what 



the result would be, but was too far off to stop him, and the next 



instant heard a hissing whistle and the sheep were streaming away along 



the plain and then turned up to the mountain side. It was a grand 



opportunity thrown away, for the rams were well within 100 yards 



of the ridge, and the wind dead in our favour. Having reached safety, 



the rams kept turning round, and looking down in our direction as 



they slowly ascended the mountain, and the big ram's head seemed to 

 10 



