xviii INTRODUCTION 



" rassad " (an extra allowance to cover the increased 

 cost of their food). Coolies are paid at the rate of four 

 annas a day and ponies eight annas. The latter, where 

 possible, are preferable, carrying more in proportion 

 (often a maund; a coolie only carries twenty -five to 

 thirty seers, a seer being 2 Ibs.), and giving less trouble 

 about food and warmth. On the whole, if no very 

 expensive expeditions are carried out, and rests are 

 made in each place, it is possible to live quite well for 

 seventy or eighty rupees a month. Shooting is an 

 expensive amusement, as licences are now costly 

 things and good shikaris can get their own terms, and 

 if " doongas " are not sufficiently luxurious the house- 

 boats will be found to be highly rented. The really 

 ruinous plan is to remain in Srinagar, where all day 

 long the visitor is assailed by the cunning merchants 

 with beguiling manners, who always bring the most 

 tempting wares ever seen, and by a finely simulated 

 indifference to pay, and an accurate knowledge pur- 

 chased beforehand from the servants of the exact 

 amount of the master's income, lead the poor victim 

 gently into temptation, and fill the boat with such 

 ramparts of pretty things that finally escape is only 

 purchased by a few present orders and some vaguely 

 generous hints as to future requirements, then salaams 

 are exchanged, and a few hurried words thrown to the 

 " retinue " show their share in the gains over the 

 transaction. 



As will be seen, it is a life of small things played 

 out amid gigantic surroundings, this existence in the 



