136 By Mountain, Lake, and Plain 



In one's long-after thoughts about a big head 

 missed, there is a melancholy that is not altogether 

 displeasing in its bitterness ; one even finds a 

 kind of joy in remembering and picturing to 

 oneself its very bigness. Perhaps it is the feel- 

 ing of one who has loved and lost. Now about 

 the size of that ram. I had noted a more than 

 complete circle of horn, and it was a big circle 

 too. He was by far the biggest ram I ever saw 

 in the Palang Koh, and Eahmat, though he had 

 not learnt to look at horns in a critical spirit, 

 thought it a very big one. This Eahmat, it 

 should be told, once brought into the post at 

 Koh -i- Malik- Siah a pair of horns with which 

 to deck the saint's wayside shrine. These I 

 measured and found 36 inches. He produced 

 for me from the ash -heap near his tent another 

 pair 1 measuring 39J inches. The latter equals 

 the record head as given in Kowland Ward's 

 book. So that when Eahmat said that lost 

 ram carried a very big head, it may be taken 

 that it was big. 



The year following I again visited this ground, 

 but saw nothing of that ram. I was much struck 

 on this occasion by the way in which these sheep 

 seem to congregate in some localities, whilst leav- 

 ing others apparently just as delectable. Going 



1 Now in the collection of the Bombay Natural History Society. 



