ioo DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR 



a soft one, but we were above tree level and there 

 were no sticks available. I found a coolie's load 

 rope and pretended to beat him, but he did not care 

 for me and my rope, only looked at me seriously 

 and kindly, as it were I am sure he was thinking I 

 was rather a fool not to understand so I gave it 

 up as a bad job, went on, and left him to it. After 

 my brother and I had gone a mile or two, he came 

 racing along to catch us up, quite rejoicing, with his 

 tail up, feeling sure he had done nothing wrong. 



We asked Aziz Khan, our Pathan cook, what had 

 happened, and he told us Bunker sat on until the 

 last coolie had picked up the last load and started. 

 Then he was satisfied, and tore away after us. This 

 he continued to do daily, or whenever we changed 

 camp. But he was only a dog, bless him ! 



Bunker's luggage consisted of two jhtils and a bit 

 of rug to lie on. He certainly needed them all at 

 night when we were up in the snows and, by the 

 way, the first time he ever saw snow on the ground 

 he gazed at it in astonishment ; picked up a forefoot 

 and set it down in the snow most cautiously, bit at 

 it, and then went mad for joy, racing round and 

 round in circles and rolling over and over. 



To come back to his jhuls, he was nearly drowned 

 on account of one. We were on the Jhelum river, 

 living in dungas, rather dirty boats which at even- 

 tide generally smelt very strongly of onions, a self- 

 evident part of the crew's evening meal. They 

 cooked it in the stern, and the wind invariably blew 

 towards our part of the ship. We tied up at night 

 to the bank with a plank to cross over to the shore. 



