ramzan's disappointment. 121 



bad as they seemed. Whilst I was impatiently reloading, 

 Kamzan, who had run forward over the ridge to mark the 

 herd, now reappeared on it, and, to my infinite relief and 

 joy, shouted back that one of the ibex had dropped just be- 

 yond it. But, on getting up to him, I was again rather 

 taken aback by the rueful expression of his countenance. 



" Why, what's the matter ? " said I. " It's all gone wrong," 

 replied he, with a rapid succession of his exasperating inter- 

 jections of disappointment. " What's all gone wrong ? " I 

 asked, with much anxiety and a little irritation, wondering 

 what could possibly have happened now. " The khel, he's all 

 spoilt," he testily answered. Not knowing what on earth to 

 expect from all this, I proceeded, in a state of bewildered 

 suspense, to where the buck had dropped. There the beast 

 lay, stone dead, jammed between two rocks, and a bullet- 

 hole in his chest testified to his being the first animal I had 

 shot at. " Look ! " said Eamzan, almost weeping, " he's quite 

 dead, and all that meat is lost." What had happened began 

 now to dawn on my perplexed mind. The ibex had expired 

 before the old man had had time to bleed him. Consequently, 

 according to his idea, the flesh was useless, for, of course, no 

 good Mohammedan could eat of an animal which had not had 

 its throat operated on by a follower of the Prophet with all 

 customary form before the pulses ceased to beat, and Eamzan 

 Meer was an extra-devout old Moslem. 



My recovered energies were at once devoted to following 

 up the second animal I had shot at, as, from the fact of our 

 only observing four of the six bucks taking their way over 

 the snow-fields far away above, we concluded that he too 

 must have been hit, and so sorely as to be unable to keep up 

 with the rest. But, unfortunately, we could find no traces 

 of him to guide us, so we returned to flay the dead one. 



After stripping the ibex of his head and skin, I reluc- 

 tantly had to leave most of the meat for the bears and eagles 

 — as the Cashmerees would not eat of an animal that had 

 not had the " hullal " duly performed on it — and descended 



