spirit that comes from sojourning in solitary places
where strangers are a welcome diversion and food hard
to come by, and they brought forth milk and butter, not
in a lordly dish, but in a very dirty earthen vessel. I
refused, knowing that these people have a taste for ripe
flavours, and like their dairy produce in the fine old
crusted ” state.
Eventually, more by good luck than good management,
I struck the Ferozepore nullah, and walked beside
Group o f Gujars
its rushing waters, rejoicing in the coolness, and eventually,
after some rough walking, arrived at the snow
bridge, a poor thing and hopelessly begrimed, and I
once more wondered at the attraction of a named goal
for most human beings. More scrambling followed, and.
was rewarded with peeps of snow peaks, Haramuk
pre-eminent, when the transparencies of mist that were
constantly gathering were torn aside for a few minutes.
They were fine samples of scenery that I saw that afternoon,
made up of snowy drifts, summer fields, stately
forests, large flowering shrubs, scarred hillsides, where
it was necessary to move with painful care among the
rolling stones and sharp rocks left by the movement of
some ancient glacier, and grass slopes starred with
thousands of blooms. Saving the Gujars seen in the
morning, I met no human being, but never did I feel
less lonely and seldom less weary, my leather sandals
being equally cool, light, and capable of clinging when
either treacherous grass or slippery stones had to be
negotiated.
When after some eight hours of tramping I reached
my tents again, I was glad I had been away, for things
at the camp had not cheered. The servants had found
the grain to be much more expensive than at Srinagar,
and refused to be comforted though offered higher pay.
The cook declared that not only his arms were affected,
but he could no longer use his legs (I had seen him briskly
walking towards my tent before doubling up to impress
me with his suffering state); even “ Mike Kuti ” (the
dog Mike) was suffering from rheumatism. Moreover,
only one egg had been brought in, and the kettle
had knocked a hole in itself by falling off
its rocky perch. All these lesser ills were
forgotten in the speedy preparations necessary
against the advent of a wild storm of thunder
and rain, the deafening roar as it echoed from hill to
hill seeming unceasing. For one hour and a half the
sound continued without break, merely rising and dying
away alternately; troughs had to be made round the
tents to carry off the water, and our ground was little
better than a quagmire.