32 AFOOT THROUGH THE 



to five feet in height, and a light orange colour ; some- 

 times tiny blue flowers starred the grass, thousands of 

 gentians and forget-me-nots clustering together, or 

 quantities of pink saxifrage mixed with the handsome 

 wild rhubarb leaves, and the feathery asparagus. Tall 

 eremurus and hawthorns scented the air, countless 

 little birds twittered and trilled, tiny lizards with grey 

 skins darted and glanced over the sunny stones. Five 

 or six miles further on, the steep path joined the main 

 track again. I found my coolie had met a friend who 

 was carrying on his head strange baggage on a lone 

 hillside two great brass church candlesticks. '' Where 

 was he going ? " I asked. ' To Gilgit." He expected 

 much bad weather in the pass, but the Padre Sahib 

 (priest) must go up to make his " tomasha " for the 

 " officer sahibs at the fort." " Make tomasha " ; such is 

 one man's religion to another! But in spite of the 

 expression, the respect for the man who to do his 

 " pujah " crossed the mountains under such hard 

 conditions was very evident. 



The road twisted and turned ; often it was blocked 

 by gigantic boulders fallen from the cliffs above over 

 which we had to clamber. The sun was intensely hot, 

 and I was glad enough to find some tiny rills, freed by 

 the warmth from their ice binding, and to drink their 

 sparkling water, as brisk to the taste and with the snap 

 of artificially aerated water. The higher one rose the 

 sharper was the air; one's invisible wings bore one 

 up, it was all but possible to fly! Gradually the snow, 

 which had been lying in small patches, became deeper. I 

 had climbed over four thousand feet, and we were nine 

 thousand feet above the level of the sea. With so much 

 snow at such a comparatively low level we knew that 



