Wild Sheep in Khorassan 1 73 



ing ridge, and, as we had expected, could see the 

 herd on theirs, which lay parallel to ours. They 

 were out of shot, but were moving slowly down 

 hill : so we did likewise. Lower down, we took 

 a little branch ravine that seemed to lead in the 

 direction we wanted, but to my horror it turned 

 in such a way as to bring us out quite suddenly 

 in full view of the herd. Ketreat was impossible, 

 as the sheep moving downwards would every 

 moment get a fuller view into the ravine we 

 had been descending. Of course we had become 

 stones, and as usually seems to be the case, 

 the position I was petrified in soon became 

 agonising. The sun was by this time intensely 

 hot. After waiting a few moments, the herd 

 began to compose themselves for their noonday 

 rest, some of them taking up a position as 

 if looking straight at us. It seemed almost 

 malicious. "Do these idiots," I fancied them 

 saying, " think they look like stones ? Well, 

 we'll just watch them doing it for a while." So 

 we were left to bake. 



I had time to observe some twenty yards below 

 us a shallow V-shaped depression in the hard 

 clay, which had been formed by water, and when 

 human nature, as Mr Briggs said with reference 

 to his historic sneeze, could stand it no longer, 

 towards this I slid. Strange to say, the urial were 



