The Maral Stag 211 



yuz-bashi and our escort apprehensions of things 

 even more serious than blank days. I had seen 

 something of these people the day before. We 

 were on our way to some crags where we hoped 

 to find ibex, when I stopped to spy the slopes 

 of a broad-bosomed green hill. I saw some sheep, 

 but also a man whom my shikaris, in great excite- 

 ment, declared must be a Turkoman. Indeed, 

 the savages espied by "man Friday" could hardly 

 have had a more perturbing effect. With one 

 accord both of them begged me to stalk and 

 shoot him. " If the Turkoman had seen us first," 

 they urged, " he would have done the same." 

 Finding me obdurate it was the first time 

 murder had been seriously proposed to me 

 their last prayer was : "If you will not, at any 

 rate lend us your rifle and we will go and shoot 

 him." But though I should no more condemn 

 a Bujnurd Kurd for stalking and shooting a 

 Turkoman than I would an Indian villager for 

 killing a wolf or man-eating tiger that had levied 

 toll on his relations, I had to make it clear that 

 such shikar could not be countenanced by me, 

 if for no other reason because we purposed travel- 

 ling through the Turkoman country ourselves. 



As we looked we discovered more Turkoman. 

 There were five or six of them moving along on 

 foot in extended line with intervals of a couple 



