96 RIFLE AND SPEAR WITH THE RAJPOOTS. 



Wednesday. — We found our camping ground not so 

 good as it had looked last evening. These rice fields are 

 terraced up the mountain sides, and those above having 

 been flooded preparatory to ploughing, the water had 

 drained down to us during the night. Santan and some 

 others got a slight touch of fever from the damp. Shortly 

 after we start we are overtaken by the coolie we had left 

 at Kishtiwar to bring on our letters ; he having done in 

 two days what it had taken us five days to travel. He 

 came by the lower road, and said only three cases of cholera 

 had occurred. At the next village we meet a venerable- 

 looking man clad in white, whom the shikaris treat with 

 much deference and respect. They explain that he is a 

 Mussulman priest from their town Islamabad, and passes 

 all the summer travelling in the mountains, ministering 

 to the faithful. Like the Apostles of old, " he carries 

 neither silver nor scrip for his journey " and subsists on 

 the charity of his disciples. From his cheery, well-fed 

 appearance, they evidently do him exceedingly well. 



We stop for luncheon at an old ruined fountain sur- 

 rounded by stone seats. These remains, on what must 

 once have been an important highway, occur at frequent 

 intervals, although, excepting a rough track, no traces of 

 any road now exist. As we ascend, the cedar trees increase 

 in size and number. Some are enormous ; we pass one 

 with a hollow trunk which would hold some fifty men. 



