122 AFOOT THROUGH THE 



stricken-looking, by reason of the militant appearance of 

 their attendant greenery, waited round ; the red leaves of 

 the singara spread out, rosette-wise, above the growing 

 nuts, and a perfect mosaic of minute pink, white, and 

 yellow blooms were also there. Fortune favoured us, 

 for we were well across the open water and some way 

 up a narrow waterway, under shelter of some thick 

 willows, before the next storm broke. This time the 

 wind was not nearly so violent as on former occasions, 

 but the rumblings of the thunder were almost deafening 

 and unceasing, for before the vast amphitheatre of hills 

 that stands guardian on this side of Srinagar had done 

 taking up and repeating each tremendous clap, a deeper 

 roar told that a new one was breaking. The sky became 

 intensely dark, the jagged lightning showing vistas of 

 bending, labouring trees that creaked as the whistling 

 gusts passed through them, against a distant back- 

 ground of dark hills and jagged peaks. Then the rain 

 fell in sheets, smacking the water with a sound of small 

 shot, and when that last venture of the storm gods had 

 been exhausted, we pursued a fairly tranquil way, 

 moving through the narrow, dark tracks of the Mar 

 Nulla. 



In places the houses on either side almost 

 touched, leaving barely space for the boat to be dragged 

 through; sometimes there were sharp corners where a 

 collision with another boat was difficult to avoid ; always 

 there was somewhat of interest to note, for we were 

 literally passing through the " courts of the people," and 

 Kashmirian home life is a peculiarly open and simple 

 thing. The houses are all high, and as the use of glass 

 for windows is unknown, they employ pretty wooden 

 shutters, carved au jour, which same jour is carefully 



