Sport in Eastern Persia

Ibex 53
patriarchal beasts grown cunning with age.
Native shikaris leave the hill alone. They are
interested in meat, but think little about their
quarry's horns. Extreme age, moreover, connotes
extreme toughness. And as the peculiar forma-
tion of the hill makes hunting a difficult and fluky
business, they do not waste their time here when
easier hills are near at hand, all, to some extent,
the home of the wild goats. The reason why I
call the shooting on the " Panther Hill" fluky,
will be clear from the record of a day.
I had climbed the hill in the dark of the morning
with Ibrahim and two shepherd-shikaris who bore
the heroic names of Sohrab and Rustam. On gain-
ing the top, we immediately saw an undeniably
big ibex silhouetted against the bright dawn,
some six hundred yards away. He had evidently
finished his night's grazing on the flat top, for
he was looking down into space, and in a few
moments was gone. A little later, when I poked
my head cautiously over the edge, I saw naught
but a narrow ledge some fifty yards down. Be-
yond this the wall of rock was overhung, so that
between it and the debris- covered ravines, two
thousand feet or so below us, nothing could be
seen. Why, by the way, has the adjective " giddy "
attached itself to the goat? One could hardly
find a less appropriate one !