MARKHOR AND SHARPU SHOOTING 165 



town through which he passed, our friend's fame 

 had gone before him ; he was often met by deputa- 

 tions of the most prominent citizens of the villages, 

 and in spite of his protests was escorted in state to 

 their village-greens, feasted, feted, and covered with 

 gifts, while polo games and dances were played and 

 performed in his honor, and all was done to make 

 his way smooth and agreeable. 



An Englishman, meeting us later, asked if we 

 had heard anything about a foreign prince who 

 was travelling in Baltistan. We had not. Even the 

 Bara Maharajah Sahib eventually came to a more 

 charitable view of the matter ; for, though his mod- 

 est nature had suffered a severe shock, the material 

 benefits which resulted were too important to be 

 left out of consideration, and as he wrote us later, 

 " You did a good job after all." 



The account of our march to the markhor coun- 

 try, and our subsequent sport there, can best and 

 most briefly be told by summarizing from the diary 

 which I was in the habit of scribbling daily and send- 

 ing home every few weeks when we came within 

 a few days' running distance of a post-office, and 

 could send off a coolie to post letters and bring such 

 mail as had been forwarded according to our instruc- 

 tions. These mail-days were red-letter ones in camp, 

 and very strange it was to read of events which had 



