42 RIFLE AND SPEAR WITH THE RAJPOOTS. 



and we were not sorry to leave the boat at the gates, 

 and walk briskly home. 



Thursday, October 20th. — We spent the morning in 

 the town, making our last purchases, and ordered some 

 very pretty chased copper tea-tables and vases to be sent 

 to England. Our boatman was extremely annoyed because 

 we refused to visit the bazaar. He harangued me the 

 whole way down. "How ashamed I should lie when 

 other memsahibs asked me if I had seen the bazaar. 

 No memsahibs ever came to Srinagar without seeing it." 

 Ui course his object was to get a commission on what 

 we might buy. I never met such a beggar in my life. 

 Nothing is too small, and he never loses a chance. Now 

 we go to a shop, and he asks would the sahib give him 

 a little shot for his gun. Alan promises to give him two 

 pounds of shot, and whilst we are busy, he orders and 

 takes it. It is only when we come to pay the bill, that 

 we find that he has taken six pounds. He robs us right 

 aud left, but with such a cheery, gooddrumoured manner, 

 smiling and showing the whitest of teeth the while, that 

 it is impossible to lie angry with him. 



In the afternoon we went on board our boats again, 

 and started for Islamabad, the head of the navigable part 

 of the river. A crowd of tradesmen came to see us off, 

 ran after the boat pressing their goods for sale, and would 

 not be convinced that silver candlesticks, inlaid cedar 



