Ibex 53 



patriarchal beasts grown cunning with age. 

 Native shikaris leave the hill alone. They are 

 interested in meat, but think little about their 

 quarry's horns. Extreme age, moreover, connotes 

 extreme toughness. And as the peculiar forma- 

 tion of the hill makes hunting a difficult and fluky 

 business, they do not waste their time here when 

 easier hills are near at hand, all, to some extent, 

 the home of the wild goats. The reason why I 

 call the shooting on the " Panther Hill" fluky, 

 will be clear from the record of a day. 



I had climbed the hill in the dark of the morning 

 with Ibrahim and two shepherd-shikaris who bore 

 the heroic names of Sohrab and Rustam. On gain- 

 ing the top, we immediately saw an undeniably 

 big ibex silhouetted against the bright dawn, 

 some six hundred yards away. He had evidently 

 finished his night's grazing on the flat top, for 

 he was looking down into space, and in a few 

 moments was gone. A little later, when I poked 

 my head cautiously over the edge, I saw naught 

 but a narrow ledge some fifty yards down. Be- 

 yond this the wall of rock was overhung, so that 

 between it and the debris- covered ravines, two 

 thousand feet or so below us, nothing could be 

 seen. Why, by the way, has the adjective " giddy " 

 attached itself to the goat? One could hardly 

 find a less appropriate one ! 



