KASHMIR VALLEYS 35 



Next day we slowly crossed the lake again, a world 

 within a world, for the reflections were almost more 

 gaudy than the real objects on the banks, and were 

 towed up stream between miles of iris-decorated grass 

 land, shaded at intervals by the massive foliage of 

 chenaars. It was a lazy life, dolce far niente carried 

 to its fullest limit. Other doongas passed, all alike, 

 save for the distinction of the individual owner's taste 

 in decoration. Many were hung with baskets of purple 

 or white iris, and were guarded by yapping fox terriers, 

 a race always to the fore where the British subaltern 

 is about ; some scorning all but the strictly useful showed 

 nothing but piled cases and heaped tins. Passing 

 through Srinagar the great strength of the tide for the 

 river is here pent up in unnaturally narrow bounds 

 made paddling a matter of no small difficulty. Extra 

 men had to be engaged, and it was onlv by exerting 



C-> <J i/ v <~J 



their full strength that headway could be made under 

 the bridges, where the water was like a whirlpool. 

 They have a regular chorus they shout on such 

 occasions to keep their efforts united, and they call on 

 saints and prophets in a regular little litany to help 

 ("K'lllah, Bismillah, Badshah "). The high wooden 

 houses rising straight from the water, the squalor and 

 the brilliance, the dirt and the endless wealth of decora- 

 tion struck a reminiscent note of Venice and Holland, 

 and promising myself some pleasant afternoon 

 explorations later, I pushed on, noting incidentally that 

 the number of boats in the English quarter had greatly 

 increased during my absence. At night we tied up, 

 the little bridge plank was removed later, and, cut off 

 alike from nearer surroundings and the outer world, the 

 doonga became a cocoon, in which a happy chrysalis 



