DECREASE OF DEER. 



227 



Government authorities sending me notice to quit. Indeed, 

 I wondered they had not done so already, for all visitors 

 were in those days expected to be out of Cashmere by the 

 15th of October, and it was now November. Had I not 

 taken the precaution to keep on good terms with the head- 

 men of the villages by making small pecuniary gifts and 

 sending them haunches of venison, they doubtless would, 

 long ere this, have taken steps to rid themselves of my 

 presence among them, by informing against me. Instead of 

 this I had no difficulty in collecting as many willing beaters 

 as I required. Moreover, they were always marshalled by 

 a great hulking fellow who, on my first arrival at Nouboog, 

 with my full approbation when I had duly inquired into the 

 case, administered condign punishment to one of my Hin- 

 dustani servants for having abused him. 



Such as I have attempted to describe was hangul-shooting 

 at that time in Cashmere. Since then, I am told, the late 

 Maharajah liunbeer Sing took to profusely decorating his 

 palatial halls with stags' horns. The traffic in them, too, has 

 of late years become much more extensive. And formerly, 

 when the slaughter of a bovine animal was considered a capi- 

 tal offence in Cashmere, hangul skins were used for making 

 the accoutrements of the soldiers, and this may be the case 

 even now. At all events, the deer have decreased in num- 

 bers, and the sportsman may have to go farther afield to find 

 them. 



