ROUND THE CAMP FIRE 301 



"but others shot more, and a tame buffalo died in the 

 pool, so when the ban httas drank there, they died too ! " 



" But they mostly died by eating bullets ? " I suggested ; 

 and the old man acquiesced, with a sickly smile. 



I worked those hills as best I could, but never came on 

 a single mark of bison, and on very few of other game. 

 Three four-horned antelope were all I saw during the 

 week I was out. And now comes the gist of my tale. 



I employed two shikaris. The old man I had already 

 conversed with I sent off to look for tracks in one direc- 

 tion, while I and the other, a younger man, used to proceed 

 in another, over the hills. 



I had seated myself for a rest on a fallen tree, and asked 

 the shikari what was done with any heads he might " pick 

 up." 



" Oh, we take them to * Ishnaag ! ' " was the reply. " He 

 lives in H ." 



Now there was a village of this name not five miles away 

 on the banks of the Tapti, and I had not quite caught the 

 name. " What ? That village over there ? " I asked. 



"Oh, no; not that H ! Ishnaag lives at H , 



twenty-five k6s in that direction," and he pointed north. 



"Ishnaag?" I said to myself " Ishnaag ?" and then, 

 suddenly, a light broke in on me. I had it ! This " Ish- 

 naag" was a taxidermist of whom I had heard, and I 

 remembered his address was H . 



That shikari was a most ingenuous individual. I was 

 certainly cautious in my method of " pumping " him, and 

 did it little by little, not all at one time, and not evincing 

 very great interest in his replies. He told me all with a 

 delicious candour, and, as I could see absolutely no reason 

 to doubt his assertions, I have no doubts at all of the truth 

 of his disclosures. The pith of our conversation was as 

 follows : 



"What does Ishnaag allow you for the various heads 

 and skins you take to him ? " 



