The Hunting of Rahmat 3 1 



dwellers. Still, it was a pleasant fancy to imagine 

 this wild child of the hills a descendant of that 

 " mighty hunter before the Lord," for in a long 

 acquaintance with shikaris in the East, I never 

 met one who so nearly approximated to the hunt- 

 ing animal. It was by no means an easy matter 

 on this occasion to induce him to accompany us 

 to camp, and it would have been impossible to 

 have persuaded him to stop there, had I not 

 adopted the quite inexcusable measure of im- 

 pounding his old rifle. When, however, like a 

 wild animal, his confidence had been won, he was 

 delighted to accompany me hunting, provided he 

 was not asked to leave his hills. This he would 

 not do. During the course of his existence he 

 had never travelled so far even as Nasratabad, 

 the chief town of Seistan, though, as he once 

 confided to me, he had on one occasion visited 

 " a city called Warmal " the nearest inhabited 

 village to the Palang Koh range. 



Kahmat's weapon was an old Seistan - built 

 matchlock which he told me was a "very good 

 one," and in saying that he was unconsciously 

 paying himself as a shikari the highest compli- 

 ment possible : for if the ordinary person finds 

 a Mannlicher or suchlike arm none too good to 

 shoot his beasts with, the skill required to accom- 

 plish the same result with the splutter and bang 



