BOW SINGH 317 



great swells : one wore a gorgeous gold-laced cap, and the 

 other a Chinese velvet hat. These were Bow Singh, 

 shikari, and his brother. I had heard of them, and they 

 of me, and this meeting on the roadside was not accidental. 

 After a short parley, Bow Singh accepted my invitation 

 to show me the best shooting grounds in the neighbourhood. 

 He had a double-barrelled Greener shot-gun (pin-fire), a 

 good old weapon, and his brother shouldered one of my 

 rifles. He was an oldish man, rather wheezy (from good 

 living and over-much chhang), but probably would be Al 

 after the wild sheep of his familiar mountain slopes. At 

 anyrate, he told plenty of stories of wonderful bags made 

 by gentlemen who had been fortunate enough to secure 

 his services. We halted at Goakh camp, and arranged 

 here with Bow Singh (or Boosing, the right pronunciation 

 of his name, and very appropriate too, from all appearances) 

 for supplies, and yaks to carry them. 



Bow Singh claimed to be Tibetan, but said he had left 

 off wearing a pig-tail for several years ; that is, from the 

 time of the last Tiri Eajah's death, when every mother's son 

 in the province had his head shaved " by order," the token 

 of national mourning for the prince's demise. When he is 

 down in Garhwal he is a Pvajpiit, but up here he is a Jadh, 

 or Tibetan. I never got a satisfactory explanation of the 

 meaning of the word " Jiidh." Anparh said it was applied 

 to all " bad " people who ate beef. When I replied that 

 I must be a Jadh, he was rather nonplussed. Peoples 

 living on the frontier dividing two distinct nationalities 

 inevitably get mixed ; and from personal experience I 

 can say that it does not improve the breed : they are 

 always bi-lingual — also a double-tongued, deceiving lot. 



My servant let the cat out of the bag, and produced a con- 

 siderable change in Bow Singh's tone of conversation when 

 he was brought round to Gandokh and the Ovis ammon 



