26 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



well to treat them as comrades and not as servants. Although 

 they work for hire, they do not understand the relation of 

 master and servant, and, though perfectly ready to help you 

 when you need help, expect you to help yourself when you can, 

 whilst in all matters of food and camp comfort they expect to 

 share and share alike with the head of the expedition. May I 

 digress here for a moment to say that this is one of the most 

 important secrets of travel ? Never allow yourself any luxuries 

 ih a ' tight place ' which your men have no share in. If you have 

 only one pipeful of tobacco, when provisions are short, share it 

 with your men, and in the Caucasus at any rate you will not 

 lose your reward. It is a good many years ago now, but the 

 memory of one chilly night among the mountains is with me 

 still, when I woke at 3 a.m. to find myself warm and snug 

 under two extra bourkas (native blankets). The owners of the 

 blankets were squatting on their hams, almost in the fire, and 

 talking to pass the long cold hours until dawn. Having rated 

 them for their folly and made them take back their blankets 

 and turn in, I rolled over and slept again. When I next woke 

 — it was 7 A.M. (shamefully late for camp) — the men were still 

 crouching over the embers, helping to cook 'breakfast, their 

 bourkas having been replaced upon my shoulders. I had paid 

 those men off the day before this happened, and they left me 

 next morning with a hearty 'God be with you,' utterly un- 

 conscious that they had done anything more than the proper 

 thing towards their employer and companion who, 'poor 

 devil, could not sleep unless he was warm, and became ill if he 

 did not get a meal every day in the week.' 



A sleeping bag such as Alpine Club men use would be 

 an excellent substitute for blankets, and with that, a pipeful of 

 tobacco, a little bread and bacon and a small flask of whiskey, 

 any reasonably keen and hearty sportsman should be able to 

 hold out for a few nights among the mountain- tops in August. 

 Indeed, if this is too much hardship for the would-be ibex 

 hunter, he had better give up ibex hunting. 



In all the best districts for mountain game round Elbruz 



