1 8 Sport and Life in the Further Himalaya 



ing prayer resounded, flocks straggled in, and 

 with darkness a silence fell over the whole 

 village. 



To-night, however, there was to be an assembly 

 in the big house, and the post-prandial cigarette 

 had barely been lighted when the sound of the 

 kettle-drums again arose within the walls and 

 the grey-bearded aksakal came to conduct me 

 to the assembly. 



Passing from the garden into the castle by a 

 narrow postern, I was conducted through a maze 

 of narrow passages and small chambers. Most 

 of these were empty, but in some men-at-arms 

 were stretched out in sleep, while one had occu- 

 pants in the shape of half a dozen hawks on their 

 perches, blinking their eyes at the sudden light, 

 their attendants, never far from their beloved 

 charges, chatting in an adjoining chamber. 



We found the central courtyard lighted by 

 bonfires and torches made of strips of flaming 

 pitch-pine. The Mehtar and his company were 

 already seated on carpets forming one side of a 

 square, the other three sides of which were filled 

 in by a miscellaneous Chitrali crowd ; in the centre 

 of all a large fire. After being seated, and in- 

 quiring with the greatest empressement after each 

 other's health, although we had parted barely two 

 hours ago, the performance began. The first item 



