KASHMIR VALLEYS 



15 



and sane, and quite prepared to make her choice 

 among the innumerable boatmen who crowded on the 

 river bank, each answering for the perfections of his 

 own boats, each provided with a perfect library of 

 chits (recommendations) from their former employers. 

 They were amazingly alike in the loose white trousers 

 and coats, puttoo (homespun) overcoats, their heads 

 crowned with red caps or white pagris. Each was 

 ready to give all and everything boat fittings and 



Baramula 



service for a mere nominal price, to be paid any time, 

 anyhow. Their chits spoke of them as paragons, and 

 almost all looked amiable enough. " See my boat," 

 cried one, " my furniture is all good English, my 

 purdahs (curtains) are of the handsomest." So I 

 stepped aboard and gazed with quite limited admiration 

 at the one camp stool and thin cotton curtains. No, 

 that boat would not do, the owner's wife looked far 



