I 1uestioner-Sahk $%9 99 Iw “hN<a*y B' 1 w hoaudl df a“llekn Iso m9e- fcjahibs husband is with h er? ” “No,” I replied. In
these countries one does not acknowledge to non-
possession £ of such things. “ I had hoped,” he
explamed, seeing the Huzur alone and without her hat
that she might be a widow; it would then have beneed
us greatly if she would have walked uncovered
across the fields, seeing we are attacked by the life-
destroying ran’ 1 I t was a pity that my I state I prevented
me from proving the value of this prescription,
and 1 was sorry to disappoint the anxious labourer.
th e Kashmiris are great connoisseurs in rice, and
even while m leaf they will distinguish between the sixty
odd varieties grown in the valley, and when well enough
oft to do so, will be as particular as to the, sort they
prefer for their food, as they are knowing in their
choice of drinking water. The red varieties are decorative
in cooking, but not so good as the white, and there
are an infinity of degrees in both. By nine o’clock I
had rejoined my doonga, which had been swept and
garnished in my absence and decorated by a passing
friend with beautiful fresh iris, and had sent a man
off across' the fields to the queer wooden hut on stilts,
added to keep the living rooms (dens would be a more
appropriate word) above the winter floods, which proclaimed
by a scarlet sign — symbol of Her Imperial
Majesty’s mails all the empire over—that letters were
there to be obtained. As a huge pile was my spoil, the
afternoon soon passed without any excitement, save
that procured from the search for my small table knife
that had been shaken overboard with the crumbs after
breakfast. Knowing its value, I suggested that it should
be left to its oozy bed, but my boatman kindly wished
to do a good turn to the villagers, and demanded that
they should search for it. As he was responsible for its
loss, I suggested that he should reward them. This,
he answered with pride, would not be suitable in a class
of establishment such as mine, so for half an hour
shining “ brown torsos ” bobbed up and down, looking
like a shoal of porpoises. Advice was shouted from the
bank, spluttering were heard from below the waters,
two small fishes were caught by lithe fingers amid great
rejoicings; finally, my knife appeared, and twice its
value was distributed in backsheesh for its recovery!