42 AFOOT THROUGH THE 



of the Hereafter ? We shriek aloud our little convictions. 

 The Hindu if it is, indeed, knowledge that he holds- 

 holds it in silence; and who shall say where as yet 

 truth has been found? 



Apropos of clues, the following of a most prosaic 

 one led me to the Tah Dak (telegraph office), and 

 incidentally to two other forms of religion. No one 

 in the place appeared to have any knowledge of any 

 office or house from which telegrams could be sent, and 

 it was only the sudden appearance of a guiding wire 

 emerging from a high wall which led me to a sacred 

 tank, and skirting that to a highly-carved door, above 

 which the " guiding line " disappeared without cere- 

 mony. I opened the door, and was nonplussed by the 

 warlike appearance of a huge goat horns well forward, 

 eyes gleaming, long, grey beard pendant. What next? 

 I held my ground ; the goat his. Was this a method of 

 protecting Her Majesty's Imperial telegraphs,* or was 

 it a mere domestic pet broken loose? A voice from 

 above, coming muffled through wooden shutters, bade 

 me " go up ; do not notice goat." I obeyed the first 

 part of the order, trying to observe a strict neutrality 

 to the nanny. Possibly the latter had heard the voice 

 of its master, for, standing aside, it allowed me to pass, 

 and engage in what looked to me like a carefully- 

 concealed trap. It was only a staircase, but rickety, 

 and redolent of quite unique perfumes. By it I reached 

 a low, dark doorway, behind which was seated a severe- 

 looking individual in portentous pagri. Possibly no 

 one before had ever wished to despatch a telegram; 

 probably he hoped to deter me from the practice of 



*The telegraph service in Kashmir and Imperial post are under British 

 control. 



