The Hunting of Rahmat 29 



ing woman, it might almost have been some 

 animal breathing out his life : yet not the less 

 solemn or touching. When I passed through 

 the spot a year later, there was a lonely grave 

 on the hillside, white with pieces of translucent 

 travertine. 



My levy turned up in the evening without 

 having found Eahmat, but he had heard from a 

 shepherd that he was living at a spring under 

 the high Nagat ridge to the east. If, however, 

 Eahmat got wind of the fact that his presence 

 was wanted by any one so formidable as a foreign 

 Consul, there was no doubt, my informant said, 

 that he would lose himself amongst the hills : from 

 all which it was clear that the hunting of the 

 shikari was likely to be at least as difficult as that 

 of ibex or urial. 



Next morning the levy and I, together with the 

 indispensable Ibrahim, leaving our camels at the 

 foot of the steep ground, began an ascent up a 

 long ridge, examining the valleys on both sides 

 for our human quarry. We soon could look right 

 out over the yellow foot-hills through which we 

 had come, and see the desert stretching away like 

 an unruffled sea. It was not till late in the after- 

 noon, when we had turned our faces campwards, 

 that a tethered donkey far below gave us the clue 

 we sought. Arrived at the donkey, we were in 



