IN THE LAND OF THE B011A. 381 



the summit of the conical hill above the river, 

 Dinah's white spots and shrill note making her 

 conspicuous in the van, whilst Dorothy's darker 

 saddle-mark showed in the rear. It was evident 

 there was a rare scent, and I had little doubt 

 they would drive her back in time ; but, unfortu- 

 nately, I had a particular reason for wanting to 

 be at home early. The only thing I could do 

 was to hand the gun to old Fezo, telling him 

 to wait in the saddle to try and shoot her, so 

 that the hounds might start for home. This he 

 afterwards said he failed to do ; at any rate, the 

 hounds were out till nine o'clock that night — four 

 hours and a half after myself. 



On Christmas Eve the weather held up for a 

 few hours, enabling us to make a short expedition 

 in search of decorative evergreens. Holly, of 

 course, was not to be had, but we managed to 

 get some ivy, and, above all, plenty of mistletoe. 

 This plant seems not to grow on fruit-trees here, 

 but sometimes, as I have before remarked, on the 

 stone pine, and mostly at Glavaticevo on high 

 thorn trees. The business capabilities of their 

 thorns I had painful reason for being able to 

 speak to after getting out two or three clusters, 

 none of which grew less than ten feet from the 

 ground. Of these one was magnificent — a perfect 

 sphere two feet in diameter, and covered with 

 berries. Such a bunch would fetch gold in Covent 



