7 o SPORT AND TRAVEL 



his arrival he told Mr. J. that on the previous Thurs- 

 day the day after I had fired at the big ram he 

 had been out on the mountain and had seen a very 

 large goat slip and fall from a cliff into a tree, in 

 which he had hung suspended by his horns until the 

 narrator of this tale went up and despatched him. I 

 thought this an impossible story, as a goat never slips 

 or falls off a rock, except when at the last gasp, but 

 asked J. to offer the man something for the head, 

 which was brought down the next morning. Directly 

 I saw the long and beautifully curved horns, and 

 marked how the points turned outwards, I felt sure 

 they belonged to the grand old billy I had fired at on 

 the day I killed the smaller animal, and a few ques- 

 tions soon involved the Turk in a labyrinth of lies. 

 At last he admitted he had found it dead, but said 

 it had been killed by falling off a cliff. However, 

 we could prove nothing, and so bought the head 

 from him for a few shillings. It was, of course, quite 

 fresh, with all the flesh and skin on ; but the lower jaw 

 having been cut off to get at the tongue, and the skin 

 cut off just behind the horns, the head was destroyed 

 for mounting. I think there can be very little doubt 

 as to this head being that of the animal I had fired 

 at, wounded, and lost a few days before, as the Turk's 

 story as to how he got it was self-evidently a lying 

 one, though he admitted finding it on the day after I 

 had fired at an animal with very large horns of a 

 similar shape and in the same part of the mountain 



