As we were now running short of meat I instituted a stalk against one of them, and took a vast amount of trouble and exertion in order to come to a close range before firing, little knowing that it was a waste of labour, as one could have approached them with taking only ordinary precautions. Close to the yak were several kyang, who were the more watchful of the two, for they were the first to notice my crawling along and at once stood up in bewilderment, but beyond that they did nothing more, so that I was enabled, without in the remotest degree disturbing the yak, to get within sixty yards of them. There I took my shot and bowled over with a single bullet the one which I considered to be the juiciest-looking one in the herd. The rest of them merely raised their heads for a moment at the unwonted noise, and then began to graze again, making no attempt to escape. I, too, then rose, and it was only after a deal of shouting that they grasped that it really was rather dangerous to remain where they were, thereupon off they trotted across the valley, far, far away. Not so the herd of kyang, who appeared the most disturbed at first; they continued to manœuvre around the whole time we were there, as though inviting us to try our skill on them, but one dead yak is oceans of meat for a much larger caravan than ours, for many a day.
As soon as one of the men had come up, I told him to look sharp and cut its throat for it was not quite dead, although in reality it had breathed its last some ten minutes ago. He at once set to work, but so tough was the hide, and so blunt his knife, that he could not cut through it, and merely first pricked it with the point; and although no blood exuded, he nevertheless told the other men that he had properly hallaled the brute, and they by this time having become less scrupulous with regard to their religious custom, made no bones about arguing as to the meat being unfit for them to eat. As a matter of fact they were beginning to learn what real hunger was. Some of them came to help cut off the meat in a business-like sort of way, pretending not to examine the throat at all.
As we made our midday halt only a hundred yards from the carcass, all fed right royally, and carried off large lumps of the flesh as well. The men, too, were in high spirits, for they had found a very old chula, or fireplace, consisting of three stones, and what was still more joyful tidings, close to the dead yak ran a narrow track actually in the direction we intended going.