Sport & Folklore in The Himalaya.

Published by Edward Arnold, London, 1913. 8vo. Original burgundy cloth, spine titled in gilt, the upper cover with a large centrally-placed gilt vignette of a Markhor; pp. viii, [2], 332, with a photographic frontispiece of a turbanned native by a tent on a mountain-side, "preparing" 2 Markhor trophies in photogravure, and 23 other photographic plates on 16 leaves; light wear to extremities, occasional light spotting, a nice copy of a rather scarce work.

'The name Markhor is a compound of two Persian words meaning snake-eater. Most writers have treated with scepticism the idea that it lives up to his name. Burrard (author of Big Game Hunting in the Himalayas and Tibet, London, 1926) for instance does not even mention the matter, though Haughton in Sport and Folklore in the Himalayas, says that he met three men who told him convincing stories, had at first hand from their fathers, of having seen a markhor in the very act of trampling on and devouring a snake . ' (pp. 162-163). According to Haughton, the snake poison creates a cyst or 'stone' in the stomach of the animal which, if applied to a snake bite, rapidly 'absorbs the poison from the bloodstream and the cure of the patient is rapid.' Facts such as these compound the already exciting tales of shikar revealed here. A good book on Gilgit, Baltistan, Kashmir, all along the North-West Frontier and not only on wild goats.