MARKHOR AND SHARPU SHOOTING 173 



was his delight to guard my interests against their 

 dishonesty ; so I let him hold the bank and pay for 

 all supplies, for which he gave me regularly a neat 

 account, and I knew that I was paying minimum 

 prices. 



The Kashmiri is, moreover, utterly childish in his 

 jealously. Our respective staffs split up into two 

 separate groups, ate separately, and were scarcely 

 on speaking terms ; and several times Kadera came 

 to me and accused Salia, Perry's shikari, of stealing, 

 though with no evidence to back up his assertions. 

 Whenever Kadera showed me game, his first remark 

 was always as to how much better he had done it 

 than could Salia ; and when Perry and I met after 

 our ibex and bear shooting, it was ludicrous to see 

 how Kadera refused to look at Perry's big bearskin, 

 while Salia visibly turned up his nose and sauntered 

 away when my 44-inch ibex-head was displayed. 

 As a matter of fact, while amusing us, this jealousy 

 was an excellent thing, for it made the competition 

 between our respective staffs exceedingly keen. 



In his emotion the Kashmiri further shows his 

 childish character. One day, when I was down with 

 a touch of fever and for a short time uncomfortably 

 ill, Kadera, who was squatting in my tent, suddenly 

 burst into tears and sobbed disgracefully, while the 

 tears poured down his face ; and the scene was ended 



