Sporting Trips of a Subaltern 



burdened with only a light rifle, so much so that 

 before I got in I began to be seriously uneasy as 

 to my stag. Joarou, however, was as good as his 

 word, and at 9.30 p.m., in the dark, a crowd of 

 shouting Gurwalis turned up, some bearing 

 torches, and the others carrying my beast entire, 

 slung on stout saplings. The whole thing was a 

 puzzle to me ; where they had collected from, and 

 how they had carried such a great weight up a 

 mountain in the dark which had taxed my un- 

 encumbered energies in the day. I was about to 

 reward them with money, but Joarou stopped me, 

 saying they only wanted flesh. So the stag was 

 promptly cut up ; and a strange scene it was, the 

 dead stag being dismembered, and the crowd of 

 half-naked Gurwalis, the whole lit up by the glare 

 of their pine torches. Each man got his share, 

 and they all vanished into the night appearing 

 in the dark from their unseen habitations in the 

 mighty hills, performing a gigantic task, and dis- 

 appearing into the dark like spirits summoned by 

 the wizard Joarou. We could see, though, where 

 some of them had gone ; for, an hour or two later, 

 from our commanding spur, we could see little 

 gleams of light shooting up far, far away, and 

 Joarou said they were already cooking their meat. 

 Next day I was due back at Mussoorie, and 

 after my success and exertions, also with a walk 

 of some twenty to twenty-five miles home over 



