58 



SHIKAR 



as the evening was darkening apace. He shook his head, 

 and said, it would never do : so without more ado, I 

 nerved myself for the trial, and got down by slow degrees, 

 wondering how I ever succeeded in getting up. 



I felt thankful for my safe return, and rejoiced at the 

 sight of my tent, and a blazing fire before it, cheerfully 

 lighting up the surrounding gloom : changed my dress 

 and that reminds me, that I have forgotten to note the 

 presence in the herbage on these mountains of a most 

 disagreeable insect, a species of tick or bug : the vile thing 

 abounds, and seems to be ever on the look out for creatures 

 passing by, for we were quite tormented by them. I 

 have picked off a dozen at a time from my dress. They 

 bite sharp, working their heads into your flesh, and there 

 hooking on with their forceps. I, with much trouble, 

 and no little smarting, detached three thus adhering to 

 my person this evening, and many candidates for the same 

 honours were discovered trespassing on my premises 

 a murrain on them ! 



I enjoyed my dinner amazingly, the fright I had been 

 in having, perhaps, stimulated my appetite. I realized 

 the sensation, that to be alive, with a good appetite, and 

 a savoury stew for its gratification, was vastly preferable 

 to being a mangled mass of senseless humanity at the 

 foot of a precipice, with ever so many big horned ibex 

 at top. It was so late that I turned in very soon after 

 dinner, and had some apprehensions of a disagreeable 

 night, perhaps visitations of night- mare, repeating in my 

 dreams the horrors of that terrible ascent, and waking 

 up with that horrid, indescribable feeling experienced 

 when one dreams one is precipitated from a great height, 

 and whirling downwards, awake to find it is all a dream. 



However, I slept well, awaking occasionally, when I 

 heard it raining hard, and rejoiced, hoping it would 



