A Vanishing Sport 125 



shikari used to tell of a herd of these animals 

 that escaped him by swimming the Indus, an 

 extraordinary feat. " But ibex too," he used 

 plaintively to add, "used to give my hounds a 

 lot of trouble." 



Keally big battues, as a matter of fact, are 

 now, and always have been, extremely rare, 

 though old sportsmen of the Himalaya love talk- 

 ing about them. I once asked an old grey-beard, 

 after hearing one of these gory tales, how it was 

 that so many animals still remained. "Sahib," 

 he said, " the more the seed the heavier the 

 crop, is it not? And the more blood spilt on 

 the ground this year, the larger the herds of 

 ibex next." And this is the common belief, 

 especially among the Kafirs. 



