A KASHMIRI rOACHER 239 



auythirig more to do with that kind of sport again. There 

 were evidently several stags in the forest — signs and forms 

 were numerous. There was trouble in the camp next day 

 about supplies, and I had to remain there making arrange- 

 ments till three in the afternoon. I was eventually 

 obliged to write to the poHce officer at Maryo, two days' 

 march down the valley, to send me help. The rascal 

 (supplies) difficulty is a frequently recurring one in this 

 country ; villagers are not willing to sell goods when their 

 lono- winter, a season of semi-starvation, is close at hand. 

 I started in the evening with two coolies and a local man, 

 with food and bedding, for a good hunt after stags. On 

 the way we met a man who said four shots had been fired 

 on the hillside I was making for ; the local man with me 

 said it must be the Siddik of Gurdraman, a village above 

 Nowbiig, who had a gun (an old rifle) ; he had been 

 shooting in Mungil. I met him afterwards near Siiknis, 

 coming my way ; but I could hardly believe the story of 

 the four shots, so went on and camped at dusk high up in a 

 dry watercourse, where we were belated, as we had spent 

 a long time getting over a very difficult place just below. 

 Water was very scarce, but we eventually discovered a 

 little in a rocky hole. We started at six a.m. next day, and, 

 after a short pull up hill, saw a stag crossing an open glade 

 high above us ; he soon got our wind and bounded off 

 prettily into the nearest birch clump. The rising sun 

 caught his flank, and the inside of his left thigh flashed 

 the rays back to us almost with the brilliancy of a mirror. 

 We saw nothing more that morning, and made camp at 

 the foot of a fine old pine-tree in the heart of the stag 

 ground. This was really a comfortable, not to say 

 luxurious, abode compared with the narrow watercourse 

 where we had passed the night. Firewood was abundant, 

 the shade was very welcome, and the invigorating 



