Sometimes the sportsmen go in a body on horseback, ride into the marsh where it is shallow, disturb the duck and fire into the flight. Sometimes they go singly, conceal themselves and use a decoy. In the plains they stalk the deer or use a body of beaters to drive the game to certain points. In Turkestan, tiger, wild pig--which they shoot--and bear are to be obtained. Duck shooting in the autumn and winter, and hawking in the spring are, perhaps, the sports in which the Royal Family most frequently indulge. [Sidenote: The Start for Turkestan.] Not very long after our arrival in Kabul it was rumoured that the Amîr needed my services in Turkestan, and a month and a-half afterwards the official order arrived. I was to accompany Jan Mahomed Khan, the Treasury Officer, who was about to convey a supply of bullion to Turkestan for the use of His Highness. Accordingly, as soon as I received the order, I engaged some servants: a Peshawuri--the “assassin,” whom I have already referred to--as valet, and a Hindustani cook, whom I found in Kabul. I was fortunate in being able to obtain a cook, as hitherto Mr. Pyne and I had shared one between us. The man I engaged had been cook in the family of Sir Louis Cavagnari. The other servants were Afghans. After some extra cooking pots, dried fruit, salt, and various other things, which the cook said he must get from the bazaar, were obtained, and the baggage was packed, Mr. Pyne accompanied me to the house of Jan Mahomed Khan. We were received in a large room, which was crowded with people standing. We seated ourselves at the end and drank tea with Jan Mahomed. Then a bottle of champagne was opened, complimentary speeches made, and, finally, about midday we started. We stopped at the Palace, dismounted, and went in to take leave of His Highness, the Prince. When we remounted we were met outside the Palace by Perwana Khan, the Deputy Commander-in-Chief, and Naib Mir Sultan, the Governor of Kabul, each with their attendants, so that with our own crowd of servants, and a guard of sixty soldiers, we made a large cavalcade. A crowd of people on foot accompanied us part of the way, running by the side and in front of the horses. The sun shone brightly; the dresses of the officials--crimson, and purple, and green--were brilliant with gold embroidery. The glitter of the gold and silver ornaments on belt, scabbard, and bridle, the blue and gold turbans of the attendants, the black sheepskin busbies of the soldiers, horses caracoling, and the look of bustle and excitement, made an artistic and interesting picture. We rode by the bank of the Kabul river westward, past the workshops and through the gorge between the Sher Durwaza and Asmai mountains out into the Charhardeh valley.