PERSIA 
northern limits extending — as seems right in an animal that is nearly 
allied to the Indian gazelle — as far as the line lately drawn to demarcate 
the British commercial sphere. 
Both gazelles inhabit the same kind of ground, plains so flat that they 
appear, and are, hopeless from a stalker’s point of view. Here they feel 
safe, and if found on more broken ground they fly to the level for safety, 
as an ibex will to a precipice. Stalking these gazelle is indeed heart-break- 
ing, for even if you do by chance come on them in suitable stalking ground 
— and this is more common with Kennion’s than with the other — it is 
long odds they will have moved on and be out of ken by the time you have 
got your stalk done. Nor can any good be done by trying to stalk gazelle 
behind a horse or camel, as is done in India. They are too wary for any 
such devices. One day you will see a party of bucks in single file stepping 
daintily across the glistening surface of a dry salt lake, startlingly 
vivid; they scatter and are gone like a mirage -conjured vision. Another 
time their presence is marked by a mere flicker of white on the far level. 
On another occasion perhaps they suddenly show themselves among the 
camel-thorn bushes, actually, it may be, in shot, but gone before you 
can raise a rifle. To the writer, at one period, after some experiences of this 
kind, Persian gazelle seemed scarcely to have a real existence: afrits, jinns, 
they might be, mere emanations of the desert, but no fit subjects for pursuit 
with the rifle. Gazelle can, however, be shot by sporting means and on 
these plains, and the method, called by the natives ahu-gardani (literally, 
gazelle turning) is thus wise. 
You and your shikari ride along the plain, taking parallel courses a few 
hundred yards apart in order to cover as much ground as possible. Your 
mounts may be horses or camels, but the former are much preferable 
as being quicker to turn. Gazelle are spotted. They have seen you, too, 
naturally, and are scouring the plain, nor do they quiet down to a walk 
till below the horizon. You and your shikari, now together, follow at a 
walk. After riding some time, it may be a mile, it may be several, you see 
them again and continue to walk after them, taking a line a little to one 
side, patiently and persistently. Thus you continue, not appearing to 
notice them, till after a time you gain a measure of their confidence, if 
not of their esteem, and they allow you up on one flank to within three or 
four hundred yards. You find after a bit that keeping this distance you 
can manoeuvre them about. This at least is what you hope for! You then 
slip from the saddle on the far side from the gazelle and drop flat behind 
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