“ dirzy ” (at once the joy and the terror of every
Memsahib) will, with small expenditure of time and
money, fashion them into garments of comfortable
shape and decent cut. The “ puttoo ” (homespun)
merchants also sell splendidly warm cloaks lined with
fur, a great comfort when on the exposed mountains;
vast boots of the same material stretching nearly up
to the thigh, very valuable when camping in damp
places; and sleeping bags which they will make of
puttoo or numdah (felt) lined with wool or fur.
These numdahs are soft and thick, and can be purchased
in practically any colour or any size and embroidered
charmingly in crewels, according to the taste of the
purchaser. They are used for almost every purpose,
and are equally convenient for all—as mats in one’s
boat or tent, coverings for the lounge, bed quilts, as
hold-alls when over-prolonged sleep has left but little
time for packing before an early start, the handy
headman dexterously with some string fastening the
sides together.
There are two good English agencies, both managed
by retired officers, where all camp outfit can be hired or
bought, and thus the great cost of transport into the
country is saved, and the purchase of the most- useful
articles ensured, for at both agencies reliable information
can be had as to the condition of the various parts of
the valley, and care will be taken to equip the happy
traveller with the camp outfit most suitable to requirements.
Parsee shops hold a very fair assortment of
the foreign groceries craved for by our countrymen,
but my advice is to keep as much as possible to the
condiments of the country, or anyway, those of India.
Ceylon teas and French coffees, English jams, and
canned vegetables are better in name than in substance,
and Kangra valley teas, Punjaub salt, and the preserves
of the country, also home-grown fruits and vegetables—
dried when they cannot be obtained fresh—are more
wholesome and less ruinous. The Kashmir wines, too,
are no longer to be despised, and their Medoc and
Barsac are both strengthening and pleasant to the
taste. All sorts of wicker and wooden articles are to
be bought in great variety, and silver and copper ware
are only too tempting; draperies and hangings are to
be had in quantities to charm the heart of the maid of
South Kensington, pens, papers, and pills—if wanted—
may be purchased without difficulty, and as all these
“ esteemed articles ” are made in a form peculiarly suited
to the land where they came into being, the traveller
will do best to leave Pindi with little more than such
things as bedding, warm wraps, tiffin basket, etc., which
are essential for the journey in.
As to the cost of such an expedition as mine, some
details may possibly be interesting to people who, with
means not of the largest, have a wish to see something
of that gorgeous East, which to the untravelled sounds
so remote and unattainable. The voyage to India is
one of those terrible black tunnels that one gets
through as one can for the sake of what is beyond.
However, there do exist strange people who, happily
for themselves, can contrive to think differently of this