Ibex and Ibex Ground 4 1 



A curious local belief about ibex relates to the 

 colour of their horns. During the rutting season 

 the bucks have a peculiar habit that darkens 

 their horns, and the distance to. which the dis- 

 coloration extends up the horn is believed to 

 indicate less or greater rain or snow-fall during 

 the winter a very important matter for flock 

 owners. 



Let me now, however, pass on to the account 

 of a stalk. And it shall be that of a beast 

 whose horns faithfully vaticinated good winter 

 rains. 



My shooting - camp lay below a range called 

 Chahil Dukhtaran, the " forty virgins.' 7 As one 

 remembers from Bible stories and tales such as 

 Ali Baba, the number forty has in the East a 

 peculiar significance ; but what so many young 

 ladies had to do with the rugged razor - edged 

 ridges that towered above me, 1 I was at a loss 

 to imagine, and no one could tell me. There was 

 some wind when I began to climb, but at the 

 top it was blowing in a way that made it im- 



1 There is a ruin on the rocky island in the middle of the Hamun 

 of the same name. The legend about this, as recorded by Tate, 

 is that forty maidens therein resided whose laughter could be 

 heard by their relations at Sekoha (the capital). Perhaps the 

 name given to the pikes above my camp had allusion to the in- 

 accessibility of the forty ladies of the island ! 



