THE SAINT OF GHOR 69 



Mirza Khan told me that a few years ago the " Major 

 Sahib " who was engaged in the survey of this valley, 

 wished to map the country on the Ghor village side, but 

 the Ghor people objected. The Major Sahib insisted. 

 The Ghorians, however, were strong in possession of a 

 powerful fakir, who could command the elements, and that 

 very night, while the party were encamped here by the 

 stream, he sent a tremendous flood, which rushed down 

 the valley with an awful roaring. Most of the Major's 

 followers were swept away, and he himself only escaped 

 by rushing up the hillside with a lantern in his hand. 

 What a sight it must have been — the Major in his 

 pajamas, bolting up-hill with a lantern in the dead of 

 night ! The Wazi'r and his men lost all their traps while 

 saving the Sahib's. The latter, however, got his way after 

 all, for I have the map he made. 



Just as the story was finished, there was a brilliant 

 flash of lightning overhead, followed by three deafening 

 thunderclaps. Their suddenness, close overhead, after 

 Mirza Khan's story, was very startling, and had a telling 

 effect on the men. The thought in everybody's mind 

 must have been — " The Ghor fakir again angry at another 

 Sahib's intrusion ! " And he was no common magician, 

 content with flash and sound only ; the thunder was 

 followed by a heavy hailstorm. It ceased when we were 

 within a mile of camp, and could not have lasted more 

 than twenty minutes. This was the first time since my 

 arrival in the valley that I had seen lightning or heard 

 thunder ; it is not the season for them — more credit to 

 the holy man ! 



The postman turned up on the evening of the 24th 

 May. How I had longed for his appearance ! He had 

 taken more than twenty days to go to Srinagar and return, 

 when he should have done it in fifteen. He was a snuff- 



