330 IN THE LAND OF THE BORA. 



sized bitch, with white face, paws, and stem, and 

 stood perhaps eighteen inches. Poor Vica ! this 

 was her last hunt ; a week or so afterwards she 

 went into the woods without leave with a cord on 

 her neck, and coininitted involuntary suicide by 

 hanging herself. 



As we left the village we passed a score of 

 Turkish women and children holiday-making in a 

 plum orchard. On our approach the forms hastily 

 became shapeless linen bundles ; in one case one 

 wrapper enclosed three of them. Village Moham- 

 medans are not usually so particular, and in this case 

 my presence was probably the reason. Our way 

 wound up and up along the sides of the ravine by 

 a fairly good track. Towards dark we reached a 

 collection of summer huts, without having noticed 

 any other sign of game than the stone-hens calling 

 among the rocks. At first there was some diffi- 

 culty, because most of them were still occupied by 

 shepherding peasants ; but at last we found an 

 empty one, and soon had a fire blazing up, with a 

 leg of lamb roasting on the spit in front of it. 

 As usual, one or two natives dropped in, and in 

 answer to my question said they would not go 

 down till the first snow, perhaps in ten days, 

 perhaps in twenty. As a matter of fact, I found 

 them there four weeks later, though there had 

 been some snow. 



Our quarters were veiy lively. A heap of straw 



