Ibex Shooting in the Thian Shan Mountains 



and kumyss, fermented mare's milk, which we soon 

 got to like and which is mildly intoxicating. Here 

 I spent a couple of days wrangling with the head 

 man about transport for the next six weeks, while 

 Chew killed a roebuck and saw the track of a tiger 

 in a canon. 



Marco Polo, writing about 1275, says of the 

 Tartars: "The women do the buying and selling, 

 and whatever is necessary to provide for the 

 husband and household, for the men all lead the 

 life of gentlemen, troubling themselves about 

 nothing but hunting and hawking, and looking 

 after their goshawks and falcons, unless it be the 

 practice of warlike exercises. 



"They live on milk and meat, which their herds 

 supply, and on the produce of the chase, and they 

 eat all kinds of flesh, including horses and dogs 

 and Pharaoh's rats, of which last there are great 

 numbers in burrows on the plains." 



Pharaoh's rats no doubt are marmots, which 

 are very plentiful and which spoiled many a stalk, 

 as their shrill whistle put every animal on its guard. 

 From all we could learn, not only on the Tekkes, 

 but at Kuldja, tigers are fairly plentiful in parts 

 of both Russian and Chinese Turkestan, but are 

 very seldom shot, none of the half dozen skins 

 which I examined having a bullet hole. As a rule, 



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