AKSU TO SHATTA, IN TEKKES 57 



At Shatta there is a strong military post of 

 Kalmaks, all mounted and armed with breech- 

 loading rifles, which they know how to use. The 

 commandant, a very cheerful and friendly little 

 warrior, came to see us, accompanied by his staff 

 and escort with the customary banners, and after our 

 passports had been duly inspected we all settled 

 down to drink tea and talk. The first thing he told 

 us was that there was another white man some- 

 where down the valley, nationality and name 

 unknown, but we thought we knew who it was, and 

 it afterwards turned out that we were right. There 

 were a few deer in the hills near Shatta, but not many. 

 As our informant remarked, there were too many 

 guns for game to be plentiful there, and he thought 

 we had better go further down before turning into 

 the hills. He also said that the stags ought to have 

 begun calling by now, so there was no time to be 

 lost. 



We were still uncertain whether the stag was the 

 wapiti or not, as the people here had no horns to 

 show us ; but, anyway, there was certainly a stag 

 of some sort. 



In the evening we went out and shot some part- 

 ridges and chikor. An old fellow who accompanied 

 us had never seen a shot-gun before, and probably 

 thought that we killed them with bullets, as he was 

 much impressed, and said that if we shot like that 

 we would slay many stags. We also saw a curlew, 



