mattli] THE STRAXGE CLIFF DWELLERS 281 



go hunting in the evening and that the manners and tactics of this 

 bird were altogether different from what they had observed in eagles. 



The strange bird on silent wings therefore, became the object 

 of considerable discussion as time went on. But however much 

 opinions were divided in general, on one point everybody agreed : 

 everybody felt that this bird was a robber and destroyer of the 

 very worst kind. No wonder little goats disappeared myster- 

 iously; cats left home never to return; and ever the mountaineer, 

 who at two or three different periods during that summer went 

 up into the higher mountains to count the lambs that in the mean- 

 time should have been born (we let our sheep run wild during 

 the summer) reported that many of them, an alarmingly great 

 number of them were missing; and all of these misdeeds, of course, 

 justly or unjustly, were put to the account of the big stranger. 



Thus the interest, curiosity and anger concerning him, became 

 greater and greater as time went on and I felt that in the natural 

 course of events, sooner or later the big stranger in the cliff was 

 bound to get a visit from the otherwise peaceful and gentle moun- 

 taineers. 



Fall arrived and with it the hunting season, and the hunting 

 season brought a lot of hunters real and otherwise; hunters who 

 knew the mountains by heart and were acquainted with the game 

 and its habits; and hunters also who were more of the pseudo 

 type; those perhaps who at some previous time had succeeded 

 in killing or secretly buying a chamois and who now felt that the 

 waning interest of their neighbors could only be kept alive by 

 an addition of new laurels. And let me add right here that 

 the second class of hunters invariably looked more like real 

 hunters than the real hunters themselves. There was a freshmen- 

 like touch about their appearance which might well have fooled 

 the most unsophisticated minds. They had new rifles, new knap- 

 sacks, new goggles, the most modern field glasses and their boots 

 were provided with iron nails and spikes ten times too big. Thev 

 talked continually about hunting and hunting experiences. 

 They had hunted, so they usually said, in the far off Tyrolean 

 Alps and had also been in the Sarojen mountains where the king 

 of all mountain game, the most rare and much prized stein- 

 bok (ibex) dwells. And really they hardly thought it worth 

 while to honor our mountain valley with their presence. May 

 I add, however, that most of the mountaineers knew better and 

 that ; I, in particular had very definite reasons for being skeptical. 



