KASHMIR VALLEYS 47 



bones," was the triumphant reply; and there certainly 

 was a fragment of a skull, and what might have been 

 a, thigh-bone! 



Such overwhelming proof was, of course, convincing, 

 at least if one wished to be convinced. I did not wish 

 or care to be 'verted any way, but I did want to get 

 to the outer air and the perfume of roses and jessamine 

 and living things, away from these horrors of mor- 

 tality, and the smells and stuffiness of airless places, 

 and the haunting of ghostly swarms of bats that 

 descended from the roof, touched one on the back, 

 fluttered eerily about my head, pawed in ghostly guise 

 the back of my hand, filled me with the dread of 

 phantom terrors. I turned and fled, though the guide 

 assured me that in ten minutes the place would be 

 clear. Ten minutes more of such horrors would have 

 cured me of all mortal ills for ever. 



After that expedition I felt myself the victim of a 

 plethora of religious formulae, and decided that my 

 next move should be to secular sights some place that 

 would only bring memories of purely worldly grandeur. 

 For this reason I decided on visiting Vernag and 

 Atchibal, places where the Great Mogul emperors built 

 beautiful palaces, and in company of the fair dames 

 of their court spent the long summer days under the 

 pleasant shade of vast trees, or bathed in the cool, blue 

 waters that, rushing from the rocks in many springs, 

 fill the great stone basins constructed to receive 

 them. Early one morning, in light marching order, 

 I started with my men from the boat to do the 

 twenty miles that separated us from Vernag. With 

 the early freshness to yield a touch of tonic to the air, 

 and walking along roads shaded with trees and peopled 



