POWER OF THE EVIL EYE 109 



umbrella, I crouched under the rock with a pot of rice 

 between my legs. However, I made a good meal of warm 

 rice and fine ox-tongue, finished a pot of jam with the help 

 of a thick chapati, finishing off with two stiff " goes " 

 of whisky. My blankets were laid right under the rock, 

 which protected me from the wind but not from the rain. 

 I got into my " Dutch oven," ^ then between two blankets 

 and two waterproof sheets, one above and one below, and 

 was asleep in no time. It must have cleared up soon after, 

 for I was up in the morning dry and fit for anything. 



We started up the Dabin valley on the right at half- 

 past five. It is broad and open, very grassy, but bare of 

 trees save for a few stunted bushes along the streams. 

 The waters of these upper valleys unite about six miles 

 above the village, and form the main stream lower down. 

 There is a path to Phiilwain up the Dabin : we took this 

 direction, as it is a short cut back to the Krishganga 

 valley. The Chambil valley, which is on the right, takes 

 its name from a large split rock. It is said that in ancient 

 times a passing traveller, as he stood before this immense 

 rock, admiring its grand proportions, said, "What a fine 

 rock!" Ashe uttered the words, it split in two! This 

 was told to me as an instance of the power of the " evil 

 eye " — the most striking effect on record, I should say. 

 We had not gone a mile when Jamala, behind me, spied 

 a musk-deer in a clump of dwarf birch-trees above us, 

 about forty yards off: Sharafa at the time was ahead, 

 making steps in the snow. The snow -bed sloped very 

 sharply down to the river, thirty yards below us, which 

 rushed along at a frightful pace. The deer did not seem 

 at all alarmed ; I had a shot at him, and missed ; he was 

 looking down straight at me, and in that position did not 



1 An ulster of lambs' wool cloth, a quarter of an inch thick, and lined ; 

 impervious to the greatest cold. Its weiglit was its only drawback. 



