2 1 2 By Mountain, Lake, and Plain 



of hundred yards between each, and from the 

 sound of a shot or two that reached us, it seemed 

 that they were engaged in walking the country 

 in line, shooting at whatever they saw, scarcely 

 a method likely to be successful with wild sheep 

 one would think. My shikaris declared it useless 

 to go on to the ibex ground, which was in view 

 of the place where the " enemy " had their camp, 

 and they were also anxious to go back and warn 

 the yuz-bashi ; so we made a round in another 

 direction. Later on in the day, after I had shot 

 a wild sheep, we saw one of the Turkoman walking 

 towards us along the bottom of a valley above 

 which we were sitting. Instead of the usual 

 shaggy sheepskin bonnet, he had on his head a 

 red skull-cap, his rifle was slung over his shoulder, 

 and his dog was at his heel. 



"God has delivered him into our hands," 

 whispered a shikari as the unconscious man dis- 

 appeared for a moment in a turn of the valley. 

 " Shoot the pidar - sokhta 1 as he comes round 

 the corner." When the Turkoman reappeared I 

 hailed him, and he immediately unslung his rifle 

 and took cover behind a rock. Then I told the 



1 Pidar-sokhta (lit., son of a burnt father) is a term of much 

 opprobrium in Persia. In this part of Persia one scarcely hears 

 the word " Turkoman " unqualified by this or some still more 

 defamatory epithet. 



