KASHMIR VALLEYS 51 



again to a low, monotonous chant. Vishnu was being 

 invoked in his character of Mahadeo, Mahadeo creator, 

 viceroy of Brahma, active power of the inventing mind ; 

 also the Vishnu who suffered the form of a fish in 

 one of his numerous incarnations; Vishnu, the Pre- 

 server in the Great Triad. Then the wife was 

 remembered, Sarasvati, the helper and companion of 

 Mahadeo ; finally, with real music, he sang a fine hymn 

 to her under the name of Lakshmi goddess of light. 

 At intervals he had turned to me, as if to include me 

 in the performance, and at suggestive pauses I had 

 thrown in handfuls of rice. He did not require assist- 

 ance in his choruses, but at the mention of Lakshmi, 

 " Lighter of the world, by whose life-giving rays we 

 follow our appointed path, and health and well-being 

 are in our homes," he glanced up. " Dia silai " 

 (matches), he asked abruptly. I had none. The hanji 

 (Mahomedan boatman) was called, produced a box, and 

 took it to the priest, and so we three of different races 

 and alien faiths met together and shared in rites that 

 would have filled the builder of the place with horror, 

 and have caused a speedy termination to our careers 

 if we had lived under his rule. Twilight had descended, 

 the faint " gou-gou " of the sucking fish was a soft 

 refrain to the mellow tones of the lonely priest's voice, 

 only broken by the piercing notes of the conch shell 

 that echoed far away among the hills behind us, telling 

 to distant dwellers that the hour of evening prayer was 

 come. The little lamp of scented oil mid the gloom 

 imitated the pallor of the stars in the still, high skies, 

 and backwards and forwards swayed the priest, 

 chanting, singing, muttering, waving his " chaori " (fly 

 whisk) of peacock feathers. When my shutters had 



