124 AFOOT THROUGH THE 



boast a fine terra cotta ornament placed hat- wise on the 

 high wooden pinnacle. Less often there was a Hindu 

 temple, low, square, of stone, with sloping tower over the 

 shrine, decorated with all the glories of tinfoil. 



In these poor quarters of the city the great 

 majority of the people are Mahomedans, and 

 may be distinguished by various peculiarities of 

 dress from the Hindus, the one wearing the 

 pagri rolled one way, and the other the contrary, 

 but the most notable characteristics are personal ones, 

 the Hindus, who belong generally to the ruling Dogra 

 race, showing all the favourable features of the old hill 

 tribes. They have a fair skin, clear-cut features, and 

 well-bred air, and the women think more of their 

 costume than their Mahomedan sisters, and have 

 adopted the becoming fashion of wearing pherans (the 

 universal "frock") of brilliant colours, the bright 

 purples, blues, oranges suiting well their complexion, 

 while the white head-dress worn flatly folded and 

 fastened round the neck in broad pleats gives a pleasant, 

 dainty, nun-like finish to the costume entirely lacking 

 in the prosaic, undyed puttoo of the Mussulman's 

 covering. Many of these Hindu women are very hand- 

 some, their open brows, soft eyes, straight noses, and 

 oval faces reminding one of the ideal Roman type. The 

 open-air life they lead helps to make them strong and 

 straight, and in the city they have not the crushing 

 manual labour which in the country ages them before 

 their time and withers their early freshness and beauty. 



On the whole, they have easy, pleasant lives. 

 Kashmiris seldom marry more than one wife, 

 and, as a rule, are kind and affectionate, and 

 a Kashmiri baby is a thing to soften the hardest 



