The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-07-09
courtship, and then die in more BETTING

courtship, and then die in more BETTING
manner.
loud andsnot less sincere, and every one
blamed every one else for having moved
or Observation-Disclosures at the critical mo-
| lnent The big markhor of the herd had
escaped and 1t now became apparent also
from tho shouts and yelps getting fainter
somehow anaged to break through the
But stay, here comes something down
the opposite slope 1t is a doe mar khor. GO
ing as if pack Of demons were after her
on she comes and reaches her supposed
refuge on the rock face. The cause Of her
ha ste is soon evident, for long Badakshan
hound is close on her tracks, not couple Of
hundred yards behind and giving tongue,
in short, excited yelps. As Is, the bound
to creep cautiously along snowy edge the
dee, wandering on and invisible to him, has
reached the further side and turns around
again toward the center Of the rock.
| signal to the Mehtar not to shoot, Tor 1t
is evident that hunter and hunted are going
TO meet nose to nose on ledge about an
inch wide and the solution OF the problem
will be interesting. Only corner OF rock
now separates them and both reach it sim
ultaneously. A chorus OF va allah burst
from the spectators In our gaIi.ry az the doe,
without one moments hesitation, sprang
straight out into midair and went down.
A gallant bid for life it was and suitably
re warded, for, leaning over, wa saw her re-
cover her footing in deep snow two hun
dred feet down, dash on to lho stream. across
and away to safety on the line her lord and
master had taken before. The hound
could do nothing but e1tricate himself from
tho precipice, which done he sat down and
parked fooishly.
tho Mehtar full OF apologies at the. poor
sport he bad shown, though as told him,
he lean for life that doe had shown us
was sight would have gone far to see.
The beaters came in groups, some not
arriving for hours atterward, Inc tale
! first making straight for our rock, bur some
| thing had turned them and they had gone
right through the line OF b2aters Tracks
! of two snow lcopards had been seen, and
that was supposed to be the cause Of the
! fiasco
Now let us transfer ourselves to one Of
the higher valleys nearer the main axis Of
| this mighty belt of mountain land, where
the mysterious ibex in his haunts of snow
and ice forms the quarry OF humber vota-
! rjes. Eere we are in the midst of romance
and legend.
There is, even to materialstic Westerners,
| something almost supernatural about the
, ibex. When, during the fearful winters Of
| high regions his summer companions,
markhor and oorial, bear and marmot,
either seek lower and warmer levels or
| hibernate in comfortable underground
dwellings,, the ibeN remains alone among
the SHOWS and drifting mists,, hat EN-
| allies them to defy the terrific elements
| thunder down the mountain sides in the
| springtime? How do they exist? The
ordinary mortal will explain 1t by saving
| that they crowd together under rock shelters
! and subsist on grass roots and luni"er
SPRAYS while the winter is at its heit h -.
] ;put;not teaches them tn kaaf, 10
| ridges and arretes during the avalanche
| season and that they are protected from
the intense cold by a thick undercoat of
wonderful soft wool;
| But every Chitrali knows we'll that ibex
are under special protection OF the noun
! tain fairies, the chief of whom lives among
the icy pyramids and high turrets of the
great mountain Irish Mir. They know
! that when the earthquakes pass along these
valleys those specially gifted can see hosts
of fairies streaming across the sky. riding
! on ibex and long named ponies. Men and
women are now living who have been
transported to the cleaning palaces of
| Irish Mir and seen their inhabitants and
the ibex that wander freely among them.
Does not history also relate how, when
| the country is in urgent danger, fairies are
seen by many with their ibeS squadrons
riding to the Mehtar 8 assistance? Does
not every Kohistani know that it was by
their aid alone that the army of the famous
on the Gilgit road and every man Of them
either killed or sold to the slave dealing
Mrs and Slighnan and Roshan2
The shaving of an ihex therefore is no
light matter. No shikari would venture
to start on hunting trip without having
first propitiated the protecting powers.
Otherwise his foot would slip on the edge
of some dizzy precipice; stones would
hurtle through the air, impelled h. unseen
hands; he would fall through into some
deep ice well in the grooming glacier.
| So the shikari omits none of the GUS
tomary ceremonies before leaving home.
His good woman first bakes him an enor-
nous cake, which is stuffed into the folds