1 1 8 Sport and Life in the Further Himalaya 



the protecting powers. Otherwise his foot would 

 slip on the edge of some dizzy precipice ; stones 

 would hurtle through the air, impelled by un- 

 seen hands ; he would fall through into some 

 deep ice-well in the groaning glacier; or maybe 

 he would wander bewildered, like the Ancient 

 Mariner, seeing fearful sights 



And through the drifts the snowy clifts 



Did send a dismal sheen : 

 NOT shapes of men nor beasts we ken 



The ice was all between. 



But whether lying under hills of green ice, or 

 kept in bondage by the fairy-folk of Tirich Mir, 

 certain it is that he would never again be seen 

 alive. 



So the shikari omits none of the customary 

 ceremonies before leaving home. His good woman 

 first bakes him an enormous cake, which is 

 stuffed into the folds of his gown above the 

 girdle. He cleans his brass - bound matchlock 

 and slings it over his shoulder, and hangs 

 round him his bullet-pouch, powder-horn, knife, 

 and all the miscellaneous paraphernalia of the 

 chase. Then, after warning his wife not to 

 allow unpurified man or woman to cross 

 his threshold, he starts off with his leash of 

 hounds. 



