42 Sport and Life in the Further Himalaya 



marvel. Of his fifty years, forty spent high up 

 on the mountains had furrowed his face and 

 grizzled his beard ; but on the most dangerous 

 ground his step was as sure as ever, his nerve 

 as steady; and many was the time I found he 

 could give me the weight of my rifle and a bad 

 beating up a stiff hill. He began life as a goat- 

 herd, when he would be away for days together 

 without seeing a human face, and thus he learnt 

 to wander about the awesome solitudes where 

 the eagle builds its nest and the wild goat is 

 monarch of all he surveys, as fearless of step 

 as they. Later on he was a hunter on his own 

 account, the most celebrated in all the Gilgit 

 Kohistan. His weapon was the matchlock of the 

 country, accurate up to perhaps fifty yards, and 

 with this he stalked and shot many hundreds of 

 these, the wildest game animals in the world. 

 That needed more craft than is necessary in these 

 days of Mannlichers and suchlike arms of pre- 

 cison. "Ah, Sahib," he used to remark, "if I 

 had only had your rifle in those days ! " to which 

 I would reply that I was uncommonly thankful 

 he had not ! 



Well, we waited and watched till evening, but 

 the big markhor did not appear that day, nor 

 indeed did we see him for some weeks after, 

 though we searched high and low, and spent 



