KASHMIR VALLEYS 3 



unfriendly adjectives hurled at Kochwan, Babu, the 

 rain, things in general, and the third passenger got in 

 beside me. Blessed man, he had a rug and no pets, 

 so the former was shared, bundles adjusted, ponies 

 violently castigated, and after fierce jerks and many 

 efforts we were actually off moving through space 

 apparently, for the darkness was so great not the 

 slightest outline of passing objects could be seen. 



The road was encumbered with many country carts 

 and flocks ; so I gathered from the hoarse shoutings and 

 sleepy answers that arrived through the outside gloom, 

 usually preceding much jolting and banging, in the 

 course of which I and my partner nearly succeeded in 

 changing places like tennis balls. We slept uneasily 

 at intervals, with a strange impression of being the 

 victims of gnomes who hustled and bullied their prey, 

 as with wheels lifted high over casual boulders, or 

 dragged through rocky " nullahs," we received the 

 elbows of our neighbours in our side, or were hurtled by 

 moving baggage. 



Crash! this time something really had happened, 

 shoutings rent the darkness, and cracks and the 

 snappings of shafts could be heard. We were soon wide 

 awake, and taking part in the general difference of 

 opinion that seemed to prevail. Fortunately we were 

 only spectators of the smash. The tonga carrying 

 the mails had attempted to pass between the culvert 

 of a bridge and a country cart, with the result that 

 when we appeared, having in the general obscurity 

 driven into the debris, the bridge was carpeted with 

 mail bags, two " ekkas " were lying in drunken fashion 

 prone on the ground, and darkness itself was riven, by 

 the remarks of the principals, to which the mutterings 



