AN ADAM AND EVE OF THE PERIOD. 75 



may be a few yet on the banks of the Sarda in our territory, 

 or the thick jungles on the Nepal side of the river. The last 

 time I saw a man and woman of the tribe was at Askote in 

 1866, and they were caught for my special benefit. "VVe gave 

 them a few rupees, but they seemed to value them as much 

 as apes ! They would eat anything given to them ; and both 

 the man and the woman wore long hair down the back, and 

 used leaves stitched together for clothing." From this, the 

 condition of these remnants of an almost lost race appears to 

 have been still much the same as, we may suppose, was that 

 of Adam and Eve after the fall. 



As we were pitching our little camp on the plateau, we 

 were interviewed by several of the tenants of the log huts, 

 who willingly offered to give us every assistance in the way 

 of sport. Tahr they reported as abundant higher up on the 

 mountain, and a few black bears and plenty of kakur 

 (barking deer) in the forest close above the plateau. 



Long before the sun had topped the snowy crests of the 

 towering heights eastward of the plateau, we were afoot in 

 the forest above, and were not long in coming across one of 

 its ursine denizens. I gave him the contents of both barrels 

 as he shambled away through the bushes. He went off hard 

 hit with the second shot, to which he loudly responded. We 

 tracked him for some distance by his blood, but eventually 

 had to give up the pursuit, as we wished to be back in time 

 to move up to the tahr ground that day. I had also snap- 

 shots at two kakur, one of which got away badly wounded 

 in the thick cover. Whilst forcing our way through some 

 tangled bushes as we were returning to camp, a twig I had 

 pressed back with my hand flew back and struck im- in tin- 

 open eye, causing the most acute pain, and quite Minding me 

 for the time of that eye. Being the right eye, thN little 

 accident proved highly detrimental to rifle - shooting for 

 several days. 



About noon we commenced our ascent to the haunt* nf the 



