BAD LUCK. 53 



several impatient stamps of his hoof. These signs were 

 unpropitious, and, I feared, indicative of his having either 

 winded or heard us. However, I lay there motionless, 

 straining my eyes in the direction of the kar, in momentary 

 expectation of his emerging from behind one of the patches 

 of tall brushwood which grew close around. The loud short 

 bellow was repeated at intervals, accompanied by stamping, 

 which grew more and more distant, and at length ceased 

 entirely. There was no longer any doubt about it, the 

 beast had detected us, and there was now little hope of 

 seeing him that night, or in all probability for several to 

 come. 



At the first streak of dawn we clambered down from our 

 airy lodging, benumbed and stiff from cold, and exceedingly 

 mortified. But there was no help for it, so we took our 

 way regretfully down the hill, hoping for better luck next 

 time. I must say the sunrise over the snowy range, 

 glorious as it was, had not the same charms for me that 

 morning as it would have had under more cheerful circum- 

 stances. This, however, was not the last of the stag. 



Thinking it unlikely that he would return to the kar for 

 at least two or three nights, I shifted my quarters with the 

 intention of, in the meantime, hunting gooral on some 

 ground where I had often been successful. The locality 

 was exceedingly wild, and the hillsides very precipitous and 

 difficult to work over. And from the fact of there being 

 no human habitation within miles, and village shikarees 

 considering it too far to visit often, gooral usually abounded. 

 We hunted there, however, for several days with little 

 success. It seemed as if bad luck were to attend this trip 

 throughout, notwithstanding the small offerings of copper 

 coins, &c., old Jeetoo had thought it necessary to make, for 

 propitiating the spirit of the mountain, at one of the rudely 

 built little Hindoo temples that are so common on the higher 

 peaks of the middle ranges. My thoughts were constantly 

 reverting to the big stag, so we packed up and started to 



