284 SHORT STALKS 



cut down to furnisli perhaps a single joist, or even left 

 to rot if not precisely to the mind of the woodman. 



Such was our huntini!- oround. We knew there were 

 red deer there, and were eager to begin, Ijut before doing 

 so, let me descrilje the lyersonnel of our party. It must 

 be admitted, that on this occasion, our following was too 

 large, and the consequent increase of luggage was a serious 

 impediment. The supposed difficulties of the country 

 accounted for this. Nevertheless, it was a mistake which 

 I here place on record as a warning to others. 



On Celestin, who has appeared before in these pages, 

 I, of course, placed my chief reliance as a stalker. I had 

 also engaged a countryman of his who combined the joint 

 functions of hunter and camp servant. To Achmet, a 

 Yuruk, who summers his goats in these mountains, we 

 looked for local knowledge. He has the reputation of 

 beinsc a 2:reat hunter. Careful cross-examination elicited 

 the candid confession that he had only killed three deer 

 in his life, all hinds. Indeed, he admitted that he had 

 found them so difficult to get, that he had given up trying 

 on his own account.^ Achmet had, however, some know- 

 ledge of the haunts and habits of the denizens of the 

 forest, and he kept our spirits up by his sanguine l)elief 

 in the power and accuracy of our rifles, and our infalli- 

 bility as hunters. If he heard a stag roar, he danced a 

 triumphal pas seul : " Inshallah, we will have his head 

 to-nio-ht." 



o 

 ^ It would appear that others are not more fortunate, for 1 could hear 

 of no horns in the villages, and very few pairs find their way to Smyrna or 

 Constantinople. This is, perhaps, in part accounted for by the custom, 

 which, I understand, prevails among the villagers, of presenting any shed 

 horns wliich they may obtain to the mosques. 



