A PATRIARCHAL OLD BUCK. 107 



wooden balcony of a house at Miirroo, I determined to 

 n'lnain there until the weather became more settled. After 

 ;i day or two it began to show signs of improvement, when 

 IJumzan suggested our making a short move to a place 

 larther down the valley, on the heights above which, he 

 said, we should be pretty certain to find ibex at that season. 

 Whilst fixing up our camp there under some find old trees, 

 we were apprised, by the sudden rustling of the leaves over- 

 liead, the oscillation of the ground under foot, and a mys- 

 terious rumbling sound, that we were experiencing a sharp 

 yliock of an earthquake. 



By dawn next morning we were breasting the hill, and 

 after a stiff and steady climb reached the ibex haunts about 

 noon. 



" Look ! there are khel up yonder, just below the snow ! " 

 said Eamzan, as his keen practised eye soon sighted a herd 

 of some six or seven ibex far away above us ; and with the 

 spy-glass we could see that amongst them was one patri- 

 archal old buck. They were all taking a siesta on a rocky 

 ridge that ran down from the bare crags and snow-fields on 

 the upper part of the range. 



" The hundohist (arrangement) will be very difficult, for 

 there is no way of getting above them," remarked Eamzan, 

 as he proceeded to gird up his loins with the skirt of his 

 long woollen gown, whilst he carefully scanned the inter- 

 vening ground. A sudden change had come over his usual 

 listless air. His hitherto impassive countenance bright- 

 ened up with intelligence and excitement at the prospect 

 of circumventing an animal he considered worthy of a diffi- 

 cult stalk, or hundohust as he termed it, and he now became 

 as active and wary as a wild cat, whilst we cautiously ap- 

 proached our game. 



By means of his clever hundohust, then-^-for stalking ibex 

 from below is always a difficult business — we at length got 

 within what I imagined to be sixty yards or so of the big 

 buck, as he lay on a small projecting ledge of ground almost 



