Deer-Stalking in Kashmir 281 



as is possible. But they are by no means fault- 

 less. The preference of the inhabitants of the 

 famous vale for speaking "the thing that is not" 

 rather than "the thing that is" is notorious, 

 and the shikari is no exception to the general 

 rule. He has also a particularly aggravating way, 

 and one it is difficult to persuade him to drop, 

 of treating his sahib as a mere shooting automaton. 

 The reader may perhaps remember Froude's de- 

 scription of the French King who loved to imitate 

 Providence, "especially in the secrecy of his 

 methods, with scant success, and often the most 

 unfortunate results ; for secrecy," the historian 

 went on to observe, "can only be successfully 

 employed by an intelligence that does not err." 

 This puts in a nutshell the average Kashmiri 

 shikari's attitude towards his employer, and with 

 that we will leave him. 



Unlike Scotland in this respect, the winter stalk- 

 ing in Kashmir is a superior sport to that obtained 

 when the stags are roaring. One winter not long 

 ago I was out many days after a reputed fourteen- 

 pointer. I would get news that he had been seen 

 in a certain glen, and thither I would betake my- 

 self as quickly as might be. The nights were spent 

 in some Kashmiri hamlet, not the most savoury of 

 quarters, and I would be out on the hard snow 

 before daybreak. This was the best part of the day, 



