A SUMMER IN HIGH ASIA. , 



rather beyond the middle age, with an intelli- 

 gent face deeply pitted with small-pox, the best 

 recommendation that I can give him is that on no 

 single occasion during the five months that I was 

 shooting did he fail to bring me within firing 

 distance of the game that we were stalking. When 

 it is taken into consideration that most of these 

 stalks were undertaken on the open hillsides of 

 Ladakh the record is a truly marvellous, and, I 

 should think, unequalled one. 



Of course we were greatly favoured by luck, but 

 he seemed to have a real knowledge of the habits 

 of the animals, and his patience was extraordinary ; 

 but what struck me most, knowing the habits of the 

 genus shikari, was that instead of urging me to fire 

 at any animal within range, however small his head, 

 so that he might subsequently boast of the number 

 of so and so that his "sahib" had shot, he would 

 frequently say, even when after a laborious stalk 

 we had at length got within range, " Sahib, there is 

 no animal with a head worth keeping ; leave them 

 to grow bigger." Sportsmen who have been in 

 Kashmir will appreciate this. He was always 

 telling me that his father and grandfather had 'been 

 professional shikaris before him, I suppose with a 

 view of impressing upon me that he had been 

 brought up " in the trade." In manner he was 

 rather independent, but after I had once or twice 

 shown him that I meant to do what / wanted and 

 not what he wanted, was quite willing to do his 



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