THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
of domesticated breeds of goats. He is otherwise famous as the bezoar 
goat, the beast that carries about in its system the stone of this name, 
believed in olden times — and in Persia and the East still — to be possessed 
of all sorts of magical properties. Bezoar -bearing bucks are, it may be 
noted, extremely rare. 
The biggest ibex are found on the biggest precipices, where for years 
they have defied their foes, panther and shikari, till their coats have 
grown grey and their horns have approached the almost complete circle 
for which one looks and, I may say, rarely finds. The finest head the writer 
has shot, or seen, measured 47| inches, but no doubt bigger ones have 
been, and will be, shot. 
When disturbed these ibex can never, like their relations of the Hima- 
layas, lose themselves amongst inaccessible snowfields and glaciers, they 
make instead for the nearest big scarp of rock, where they may sometimes 
be stalked again. I remember a herd that had gone off after an unsuccessful 
stalk, and when found again were in possession of an ancient ruined fort 
built by the fire-worshippers in the days of their persecution. It was on 
the highest point of the range, a dizzy crag, and whether from the point 
of view of the former occupants or of the ibex, was a well-selected retreat, 
for there was but one path up, and now the scimitar horns we could see 
against the sky showed us that it was well guarded. So we had to leave 
them there to the companionship of the ghosts of the old Magians. Unlike 
the habits of the Himalayan goats also is the way in which these ibex hide 
themselves. Once I made a stalk after a solitary ibex up a hill, the top of 
which was a bare, broad limestone. On getting there he was nowhere 
to be seen. A shout came from one far below whom I had left to keep an 
eye on the beast. The shikari with me understood the shout and pointed 
to a little cleft in the rock a few yards in front of us. The cleft was not more 
than a couple of yards broad and had a few bushes growing out of it. 
Nothing was to be seen, and the shikari made a noise. No result. More 
noises! Still nothing happened. Then he hurled a great stone, and out the 
ibex bolted. He dropped at about twenty yards’ range. 
That day I came on panther tracks that were certainly not half an hour 
old, but there was nothing to be seen of the beast that made them. The 
sportsman after big game in Persia will often find traces of these wily 
cats, but he will be fortunate if he ever gets a shot. The only plan to try 
is that of tying up a bleating goat near where there has been a kill or a 
panther has been seen, but they are great wanderers and success will only 
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