i62 THE JOURNEY TO LADAKH 



of the country. The gentleman shooting about Kardok 

 sent in some heads and skins during my stay at Eokchen ; 

 there were two nyan heads (0. Hodgsoni ammon) and 

 some napu heads {0. nahoor or barhal). The former were 

 evidently picked up or bought : one was bleached by the 

 weather, and very old ; the other seemed a skull of last 

 winter ; there were no nyan skins. The horns of the 

 largest head measured forty-two inches, or about two inches 

 above the average size. These picked-up heads are often 

 passed off in the plains, by the sportsman who uses the 

 silver bullet, as trophies that have been acquired by him 

 after going through unheard-of hardships. The old heads 

 are even set up, sometimes witli the skins of smaller 

 animals that have really fallen to his rifle, and thus a 

 greater air of verisimilitude is given to the story. The 

 cunning taxidermists of Srinagar city are unapproachable 

 in this kind of forgery. Who has not heard the rotund 

 warrior holdinc; forth after dinner to an attentive and 

 admiring group of youngsters, filling them up with the 

 wonderful incidents of that difficult stalk on the stony 

 plain beyond Hanle, where he had to crawl ventre a terre 

 for half a mile, while a scorching sun blistered his back ? 

 No ; the real Tibetan sportsman is tall, lean, and most 

 exasperatingly silent as to his adventures. He is met 

 now and then in his favourite haunts, clad in an old suit 

 of khaki, weather-worn and ragged at many points, a 

 battered old felt on his head, and a pair of worn-out 

 ammunition boots on his feet. His face is the colour of 

 brick dust, where it is not hidden by the hairy growth of 

 many days. He has lived on chapatis, cooked by his 

 faithful Gurkha orderly, and jam made by his careful wife, 

 for the last three weeks ; but he is now walking away 

 with the three biggest trophies of the season — and he has 

 done it all within three months' leave ! This is the style 



