130 IBEX SHOOTING 



so had given up all thought of "hilal." 

 Suddenly, however, he moved a leg, through 

 muscular contraction after death, where- 

 upon the men cut his throat with great 

 joy, murmuring the prayer laid down in 

 the Koran. This ibex, however, was a 

 hopeless case, so his head was cut off, he 

 was skinned, and his carcase left for the 

 vultures, while the trophies were pulled up 

 by Lassoo and myself by a rope made out 

 of our combined puggrees knotted together. 

 We were joined by Muksooda and the 

 coolie half an hour later, and were soon 

 back on our cliff again on our way home. 



What a jolly return that was ! For in- 

 stead of having always to keep something 

 between us and the ibex as before, we 

 made tracks boldly down a valley of snow, 

 which was now nice and soft, and after 

 a few hundred yards walking, each man 

 spread his blanket under him, and went 

 tobogganing down. How we did fizz along 

 as we lay on our backs, trusting entirely to 

 the valley for our direction ! Away we 



