‘A JOURNEY IN THE EAST, 345 
The sun was scorchingly hot, not a breath of air stirred, 
and the blue cloudless sky was wrapt in the hazy noonday 
heat. The very first hill made us perspire freely, for 
the short grass on the steep slopes was very slippery, and 
there were no stones to give a foothold. A few partridges 
rose a long way off, a very fine jackal was missed by 
Chorinsky, and the Grand Duke killed a particularly large 
snake, which took a good dose of shot before it could be 
secured. 
We got over a couple of these grey-green grassy hills 
pretty well, but the beaters were lazy, allowing gaps to occur, 
and the form of a proper drive in line, after the European 
fashion, got more and more lost. The country then began to 
assume another character—flat rocks, cliffs, caves, old walls 
enclosing terraces for vines and olives, and rocky valleys, 
such as that behind the village of Betsahur, succeeded to the 
bare hills. Hardly had we entered this ground when a jackal 
jumped up from the rocks just below me, and though my 
shot rolled him over, the nimble beast at once disappeared 
into a deep earth mortally wounded. 
As I wanted to get my booty I sent my jager to the camp’ 
to fetch the dachshunds, and waited at the place, refreshing 
myself with some lemonade which the faithful and ever- 
ready Achmed had produced. The rest of the gentlemen 
continued their homeward beat, and Count Waldburg shot 
another partridge which got up in front of him. 
My jager soon arrived with three dachshunds. A Sla- 
vonian bred dog called Scheck, the largest and strongest of 
them, at once dashed into the earth with the greatest eager- 
ness, followed by his Croatian comrades Croat and Opeka. 
In a few moments we heard a rumbling under the stones, and 
Lat first thought that they were fighting with the wounded 
animal ; but I soon found that I was wrong, for on looking 
down the hole I saw that they were dragging out the dead 
