Night on the mountain
you may be at the time of asking. We were just within
hailing distance, but not near enough for conversation, and
the shepherd showed some natural reluctance, which outraged
the Refuge of Allah. It would take him half an hour to get
back to his sheep again from where we stood: after several
shouted messages, however, he came towards us at last; he
stepped from boulder to boulder with the easy balance of the
hills. He was a young lad, in a khaki tunic and blue cotton
trousers, with a shock of henna* d hair under a curly black
sheepskin cap; his eyes were green, and he held a staff in his
hand. " No mule can go along the valley down there," said
he. The only track in this region was that of Kalau, on which
we were. We returned to 'Aziz, who had already unloaded
the mules in a sheep-pen of loose stones, close to the corrie's
edge.
It was cold after sundown with a delicious Alpine coldness,
and plenty of thorny stuff to burn grew among the iris roots
in the corrie. And as the two men sat over the fire, and I had
already got into my sleeping-sack for warmth, 'Aziz was
justified, a voice hailed in the dark, and the shikari, with field-
glasses and three eggs from the farm of Mian Rud, appeared in
our circle.
No ibex was slung over his shoulder, but he had been seeing
them all day through the glasses, said he, " as if one could touch
them with the hand," and appeared to think that this delightful
occupation should be as much a cause of joyous excitement to
us as it was to him. Without wasting more words, he settled
down to bread and cheese. He was a shy and simple soul—
one of the few dwellers in the valley who spent die whole
year there or wintered on the coast: and so he had never spoken
to a European in his Hfe, or seen one before the arrival of the
Hungarian engineer. But as he found that I liked to hear
about the paths and wildernesses of the hills, and saw me eat
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