YEARNING FOR COOKED FOOD 87 



The coolies brought in the remaining portion of the ibex, 

 which had been safely stowed away by Mirza Khan for 

 the nio;ht, and I now bet^an to feel the want of a cook. 

 My chef had become quite useless as a cooking animal 

 ever since I had taken to lodging out under the rocks in 

 these upper regions, and all this time I had been living on 

 chapiitis, tinned beef, and jam. My interior craved some- 

 thing cooked and warm. My sleep was disturbed by 

 visions of splendid dinners, that were only an exasperating 

 memory when I awoke. I tried my 'prentice hand at ibex 

 chops, cooked in the cover of the only pot I had with me, 

 but my success fell very short of my hopes. I forgot to 

 record in the proper place my first experience of "black 

 dal " (pulse). It was an agreeable surprise ; very palatable 

 when boiled long enough, that is, for five or six hours, and 

 eaten scalding hot, after the shades of evening fell and 

 darkness softened the colour of the mess. One must be 

 thoroughly famished to appreciate it ; but there is no 

 doubt of the nourishing qualities of the black and 

 glutinous mess, whicli is the standing dish of India's 

 dusky millions. 



While climbing the hillside opposite our camp next 

 morning early, Jamala, the breakfast-carrier, saw an ibex 

 across the valley, going up hill. I had four shots at him, 

 at very long ranges, and missed. He was a small buck, 

 and had evidently crossed over from our side a little ahead 

 of us. The hill was so steep and slippery from the pine- 

 needles which lay thickly on the ground, that I had not 

 even firm foothold ground when I fired. The last spur 

 dividing the Boin and Hasharai streams are splendid 

 places for markhor below and for ibex above. I saw five 

 small bucks of the latter, and had a long and tiresome 

 stalk, but they disappeared by the time we neared the 

 spot where they had been marked down. 



