Ahmed Bot showed reckless courage. Having overwhelmed the enemy with a
vituperative broadside, he fell upon them single-handed, tore from them
their cherished blankets, and spilt the leeks to the four winds.
I expected nothing less than to be promptly hurled down the khud, with
Jill after me, by the six enraged burghers of Kulgam. But no. They simply
sat down together on a rock, and blubbered loud and long; we sat down
opposite them on another rock and laughed, and laughed--tableau!
On Friday I went for a delightful walk through the pine and deodar forests,
the ostensible objective being, of course, a bear. Putting aside all ideas
of sport, I gave myself up to the simple joy of mere existence in such a
land; noting a handsome iris with broad red lilac blooms, which I had not
seen before; listening to the intermittent voice of the cuckoo, and
pausing every here and there to gaze over the fair valley, backed by its
encircling ranges of sunlit mountains.
The chota shikari is a youth of great activity, both mental and physical.
He almost wept with excitement on observing the mark of a bear's paw on a
dusty bit of path. He said it was a bear which had left that paw-mark, so
I believed him. Late in the dusk of the afternoon he _saw_ a bear sitting
looking out of a cave. I could only make out a black hole, but he saw its
ears move. I regarded the spot with a powerful telescope, but only saw
more hole; still, I cannot doubt the chota shikari.
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