Round the Camp Fire, 171 



while I and the other, a younger man, used to proceed in 

 another, over the hills. 



I had seated myself for a rest on a fallen tree, and asked 

 the shikdri what was done with any heads he might " pick 

 up. " 



" Oh, we take them to Ishnaag ! " was the reply. " He 

 lives inH ." 



Now there was a village of this name not five miles 

 away on the banks of the Tapti, and I had not quite 

 caught the name. " What? That village over there?" 

 I asked. 



" Oh, no; not that H ! Ishnaag lives at H , twenty- 

 five kos in that direction," and he pointed north. 



" Ishnaag ? " I said to myself " Ishnaag ? " and then, 

 suddenly, a light broke in on me. I had it ! This 

 M Ishnaag " was a taxidermist of whom I had heard, and 

 I remembered his address was H . 



That shikdri was a most ingenuous individual. I was 

 certainly cautious in my method of " pumping " him, and 

 did it little by little, not all at one time, and not evincing 

 very great interest in his replies. He told me all with a 

 delicious candour, and, as I could see absolutely no reason 

 to doubt his assertions, I have no doubts at all of the truth 

 of his disclosures. The pith of our conversation was as 

 follows : 



" What does Ishnaag allow you for the various heads 

 and skins you take to him ?" 



" For a bison's head Rs. 15 ; for a sambar's head Rs. 5 ; 

 and if it is khtib zabbar, a real big one, then perhaps 

 Rs. 7. For a chital head I get less. For a tiger's skin 

 Ishnaag gives Rs. 50, and for a panther's skin Rs. 15. 

 A bear's skin fetches Rs. 4. For a sambar's skin, male or 

 female, we get from Rs. 5 to Rs. 7." 



