Our wardrobe was
stowed in these and secured by padlocks, and the cooking gear, together
with a certain amount of stores in the shape of grocery, bread, and a
couple of bottles of whisky were safely housed in a pair of large covered
creels or "kiltas."
Each of the party provided him or herself with a khudstick, consisting of
a strong and tough shaft about five feet long, tapering slightly towards
the base, where it is shod with a chisel-shaped iron end.
Our staff of retainers had now been brought up to five--the shikari, Ahmed
Bot, having procured a satellite, known as the chota shikari, a youth of
not unprepossessing appearance, but whose necessity in our scheme of
existence I had not quite determined. Ahmed Bot, however, was of opinion
that all sahibs who wanted sport required two shikaris, so I imagined that
while I was to be engaged with one in pursuit of bara singh, the other
would employ himself in "rounding up" a few tigers for the next day's
sport in another direction. Ahmed Bot agreed with me in the main, but did
not feel at all sure about the tigers--he proposed ibex.
The fifth wheel to our coach was a strikingly ugly person, like a
hippopotamus, whose plainness was not diminished by a pair of enormous
goggles; this was the harmless necessary sweeper, that pariah among
domestics, whose usefulness is undreamed of out of India.
After dinner last night we left the hotel, truly thankful to shake the
dust of its gloomy precincts from our feet, and sought our boats, which
were moored in the Chenar Bagh.
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