THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
some tuft or excrescence. Your horse’s reins are caught by the shikari, 
who goes on without stopping. In the course of the next half hour or more, 
if he is observant and patient, he will be moving the herd up towards you. 
About this time if you become aware of a sharp stone running into your 
elbow, you have to bear it, for a move behind your all too insufficient cover 
would spoil everything. You feel anxious about the wind, for though gazelle 
trust their eyes more than their noses for protection, they cannot be brought 
up in the wind’s eye. Many, many are the slips possible, and the first fair 
chance offered must be promptly taken. By the time they are within long 
range, what with the trouble the herd has given you, what with the noble 
size of the horns of that buck that will — confound him! — keep fifty yards 
behind the rest, what with half a dozen other things, I know of no situation 
more likely to induce an attack by that insidious microbe, buck fever! 
Persian shikaris all say that ahu-gardani is easier in very cold weather 
than at other times, as the gazelle then keep moving during the night 
and are in consequence lazier in the daytime. This, however, does not 
accord with the writer’s experience. 
Gazelle may often be got when one is on the march by taking a detour 
from the caravan road. Not so ibex. “ The high hills are a refuge for the 
wild goats,” and the business of ibex stalking in Persia must be carried 
out with due seriousness and preparation. Your little camp will not be 
at a village, one of those man-made oases of Persia, where humanity, with 
extraordinary labour, manages to extract a little stream of water from 
barren hills, but at some natural spring in the range. The streamlet is 
barely born before it ceases to exist, but the dry earth returns grateful 
thanks for the smallest benefits by a touching little display of loveliness. 
For among these parched crags, with their intense contrasts of light and 
shade, what can compare in beauty with rocks glistening wet under 
a green tree, clinging maidenhair, a pool of water, a few flowers of 
subdued tints ? 
Near by there may be some nomad shepherds’ black tents, in which 
case local talent will be enlisted as guide or shikari. The start has to be 
made betimes, so as to reach before the sun the top of the ridge that frowns 
blackly down on your camp; so up you go with the light feet of early 
morning, following the leader. To one who has experience of Himalayan 
shooting and remembers the terrible long climbs that precede the moment 
when it is worth while taking the glasses out of the case, the ease with 
which one clambers up the grim-looking Persian hills is as pleasant as it 
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