A HYSTERICAL COOLIE 241 



shot. The two men with me rushed down for the halal, 

 but to their horror they could not find tlie animal in the 

 darkness, and their hopes of lawful meat for supper began 

 to fade. But they did find him at last, guided by his 

 dying struggles. Then they shouted that two men could 

 not perform the ceremony, by reason of the animal's 

 struffgles and because it was so dark. One of the coolies 

 from the camp, who had brought up the double 

 Express on hearing my first shot, was still with me, and 

 when the shikaris shouted that they could not cut the 

 beast's throat between them, the absurdity of it quite upset 

 that coolie; he roared with laughter, jumped about on one 

 leg and then on the other, bit his hand and arm to keep 

 himself from laughing, and behaved so comically altogether 

 that he set me off too. The idea that two strong men 

 should be unable to halal a dying stag was so funny to 

 this simple villager that it nearly sent him into hysterics. 

 When he was sufficiently recovered, he went to help, and I 

 returned to the fire, much elated with a stroke of luck 

 which I certainly did not deserve, after deserting the hill- 

 side at the very time that brings the chance of a shot. I 

 had a rough camp dinner, drank to my luck in a tin 

 pot of hot Swiss milk, in default of anything stronger, and 

 turned in. Next morning I took the measurements of my 

 trophy. Length of horns, 37 and 35^ inches; girth above 

 brow antler, 7 inches; divergency at tips, 38 J inches; 

 tines, 10. 



This is very near the size that Ward says (page Go) 

 " should be considered a prize worth working for." The 

 divergency seems small, compared with that of the largest 

 Ward had seen — fifty and fifty-six inches. The body of 

 the stag was short, sturdy, and compact, quite different 

 from the shape of the huge animals that are shot in the 

 valleys on the Kashmir side. The more rigorous climate 

 16 



