KASHMIR VALLEYS 43 



sending them, for his manner was alarmingly stern, 

 and my modest message was made the subject of so 

 much query and answer that the importance of the 

 transaction was thoroughly brought home to me, and 



CJ \l O 



I departed, crushed with the mightiness of the 

 machinery set in motion by my small requirements. It 

 really is a curious fact worthy of some consideration 

 that from that tiny spot in the heart of Asia, a dirty 

 room, under the charge of a native and a he-goat, a 

 message in a few short hours could be sent to a home 

 in a little island in the North Sea. 



Outside again I pursued my inspection of local 

 faiths, and admired the clear waters that rush out 

 from a spring here, filling a great stone tank built by 

 Jehangir. On two sides stretched the buildings which 

 originally formed his palace. The telegraph office was 

 a small part. Vast chenaars shaded the spot. The 

 tank was full of fishes that came greedily to the surface 

 to swallow the great chupatties we threw to them. So 

 large and fat were these great carp, they threw them- 

 selves upon the coveted morsel with a sound of gobbling 

 worthy of an alderman's orgy in their greed, refusing 

 a poor little yellow fish quite a pariah, from its strange 

 colour any part of the feast. Ash-smeared fakirs sat 

 round the tank, an evil smile curling their lips, eyes 

 that glittered in snaky, restless fashion, a fine contempt 

 in their general attitude for the religion that devotes 

 gifts to such poor representatives of Vishnu Mahadeo 

 as the fishes. From the tank I strayed round to 

 another form of religion, and examined the Mahomedan 

 shrine, which I had noticed at a distance, with a crown 

 of pure white iris softly draping the deep, brown 

 walnut wood of the roof that was further ornamented 



