16-t RIFLE AND SPEAR WITH THE RAJPOOTS. 



ground was covered with stones, not close enough together to 

 walk upon, hut quite big enough to trip one up. Then came 

 acres of loose flat tiles, which slithered over one another like 

 ice. Without a moment's notice your feet slipped from 

 under you, and down one went on one's back. 



After I had gone about half a mile, Alan and Rahman 

 came up : and we saw Khaira still ahead, but walking slowly. 

 He had lost sight of the wounded animal, and was following 

 the trail. Alan ran towards him ; when suddenly the ram 

 jumped up from behind a rock some five hundred yards off, 

 where it had evidently been lying down. It did not go far, 

 and lay down again at the foot of a cliff above the dried-up 

 bed of the stream. Alan went back, and round the hill, so 

 as to get above it — for what little wind there was came from 

 below — whilst we sat down and watched. In about ten 

 minutes' time, we saw Alan and Rahman on the top of the 

 cliff, directly over the wounded ram. 



Alan took a steady shot, but nothing moved, till pres- 

 ently we saw Rahman tearing down the slope, evidently in 

 a hurry to perform the last rites. 



It was a fine ram, with horns twenty-eight inches long. 

 The first shot hit him too far back, but Alan said he never 

 stirred after the second, and was dead before Rahman got 

 up to lialal. 



This ceremony consists of repeating the Mahometan 

 creed when cutting the animal's throat, and unless the rite 



