on heel-less chaplis is distinctly inferior to tobogganing.
I t cut off nearly four miles of road, and by taking
advantage of my accidental collapses, when the track
wore its least amiable aspect, I was able to rest myself
and collect specimens of the numberless small blue and
white blooms that had been tempted by the fine day
to come out and have a look round, and I was also
enabled thereby to account for my unsteadiness, which
might otherwise have shaken the confidence of the
stalwart followers in my powers to walk down a rocky
staircase with either skill or grace.
Below my old friend was waiting
Below my old friend was waiting, and at last he was
convinced of the genuine character of my strolls, but
was concerned for the blisters contracted in my rock
dégringolade. “ Much salt will harden,” was his
excellent advice, proffered at the same time as a large
posy of roses and iris held by a minute grand-daughter,
the vast number of her black plaits testifying to
the excellence of her condition in life rather than the
thickness of her hair!
Next day we slowly crossed the lake again, a world
within a world, for the reflections were almost more
gaudy than the real objects on the banks, and were
towed up stream between miles of iris-decorated grass
land, shaded at intervals by the massive foliage of
chenaars. I t was a lazy life, dolce fa r niente carried
to its fullest limit. Other doongas passed, all alike,
save for the distinction of the individual owner’s taste
m decoration. Many were hung with baskets of purple
or white iris, and were guarded by yapping fox terriers,
a race always to the fore where the British subaltern
is about; some scorning all but the strictly useful showed
nothing but piled cases and heaped tins. Passing
through Srinagar the great strength of the tide—for the
river is here pent up in unnaturally narrow bounds__
made paddling a matter of no small difficulty. Extra
men had to be engaged, and it was only by exerting
their full strength that headway could be made under
the bridges, where the water was like a whirlpool.
They have a regular chorus they shout on such
occasions to keep their efforts united, and they call on
saints and prophets in a regular little litany to help
( Hlah, Bismillah, Badshah The high wooden
houses rising straight from the water, the squalor and
the brilliance, the dirt and the endless wealth of decoration
struck a reminiscent note of Venice and Holland,
and promising myself some pleasant afternoon
explorations later, I pushed on, noting incidentally that
the number of boats in the English quarter had greatly
increased during my absence. At night we tied up,
the little bridge plank was removed later, and, cut off
alike from nearer surroundings and the outer world, the
doonga became a cocoon, in which a happy chrysalis