A QUICK RECOVERY 269 



felt so helpless in my lite. The depression of spirits, too, was 

 great. After every tug up the road I was on the point of 

 giving orders to return, for I felt so utterly played out that 

 I imagined I could never reach the next stage, about three 

 miles on. But I got in at last, and, after a rest and 

 some food, things began to look brighter. My illness 

 was slight, and could not be accountable for such an utter 

 collapse of energy and strength ; the high elevation had 

 something to do with it. At these great altitudes it 

 would seem that the slightest illness prostrates one 

 entirely, and I can easily understand how people of weak 

 constitution, in bad health, or with diseased organs — 

 hearts or lungs — succumb so quickly from exposure on 

 lofty mountains. My walk did me good, for the in- 

 digestion disappeared. Just as we started from camp, 

 we saw nine barhal grazing on a grassy slope above, 

 but they seemed to be all ewes, and I was not fit to go 

 after them. 



Dunti is a large plain, and the river runs along its 

 left edge, at the foot of the range. Anparh informed me 

 that the hill-tops here are under the special protection of 

 the god Kardii. This information, as I foresaw, was 

 preliminary to the usual ceremony of propitiation, in which 

 Her Majesty's head, in silver, plays such an important 

 part. My guide was far too diplomatic to make the 

 sutTQ-estion at once. He bided his time for the appropriate 

 moment — probably when a ram with splendid horns 

 would be sighted, looking down on us from a distant 

 peak. That would be a propitious sign for me, and for 

 Anparh also. I would in imagination have a foretaste of 

 the successful stalk, while Anparh would say to himself, 

 " There is the messenger of the good deota demanding his 

 rights." 



