98 RIFLE AND SPEAR WITH THE RAJPOOTS. 



good path till luncheon-time. After which we take a 

 short cut along a sort of mantelpiece barely six inches 

 wide, and overhanging a precipice of some hundreds of 

 feet. Huge bearded eagles (the Liimmergeyer) circle 

 round below me as I crawl along, and sometimes sweep 

 past so near that I can hear the rustle of their wings : 

 and I feel grateful when at length we gain a broader 

 track, and gentler slopes. From here the valley opens 

 out and becomes more cultivated. Below are fields of 

 linseed and other crops. Above, the mountain sides are 

 clothed with gigantic bushes of rhododendron, some of 

 them really trees. Instead of following the river, our 

 path ascends with the line of cultivation from village to 

 village. 



<,>uite suddenly we enter a little glen with a tiny flour- 

 mill astride its stream. The miller's wife rushes out, asks 

 me to be seated, and pours out a voluble discourse, which 

 I am given to understand is a welcome to these parts. 

 She is a wild-looking person, with a plait of coarse black 

 hair reaching nearly to the ground, surmounted by a 

 curiously shaped red cloth cap with a pointed flap behind, 

 and would make the fortune of a Drury Lane pantomime, 

 treated from the low-comedy point of view. Each of her 

 ears is pierced with numerous silver rings, which are 

 fastened by chains to the top of her head. I suppose this 

 is to take off the weight. She has a ring through her 



