encamp here. We have not gone far this morning, it is
true, and the sun is still very high; but we have got the venison to
prepare, and should therefore encamp earlier than usual." No one
opposing the honourable gentleman's motion, it was put and carried
unanimously, and we proceeded to set up our tent by the side of the
spring.

Samdadchiemba had often talked of his great dexterity in the dissection
of animals, and he was delighted with this opportunity of displaying his
excellence in this respect. Having suspended the roebuck from a
pine-branch, sharpened his knife upon a tent-pin, and turned up his
sleeves to the elbow, he asked whether we would have the animal
dismembered _a la Chinoise_, _a la Turque_, or _a la Tartare_.
Unprovided with any reason for preferring any one of these modes to the
other two, we left it to Samdadchiemba to obey the impulse of his genius
in the matter. In a minute he had skinned and gutted the animal, and he
then cut away the flesh from the bones, in one piece, without separating
the limbs, so as to leave suspended from the tree merely the skeleton of
the deer. This, it appeared, was the Turkish fashion, in use upon long
journeys, in order to relieve travellers from the useless burden of
bones.

This operation completed, Samdadchiemba cut some slices of venison and
proceeded to fry them in mutton fat, a manner of preparing venison not
perhaps in strict accordance with the rules of the culinary art; but the
difficulty of the circumstances did not allow us to do better. Our
banquet was soon ready, but, contrary to our expectations, we were not
the first to taste it; we had seated ourselves triangularly on the grass,
having in the midst the lid of the pot, which served us as a dish, when
all of a sudden we heard, as it were, the rushing of a storm over our
heads: a great eagle dashed, like a lightning stroke, upon our
entertainment, and immediately rose with equal rapidity, bearing off in
each claw a large slice of venison. Upon recovering from our fright at
this sudden incident, we ourselves were fain to laugh at the ludicrous
aspect of the matter, but Samdadchiemba did not laugh by any means; be
was in a paroxysm of fury, not indeed at the loss of the venison, but
because the eagle, in its flight, had insolently dealt him a sound box on
the ear with the extremity of its great wings.

This event served to render us more cautious on the following venison
days. During our previous