KASHMIR VALLEYS 125 



heart. Groups of adoring parents are generally 

 to be seen of an evening commenting on the 

 latest prodigies performed by the chubby little 

 orange-skinned " butchas " as their fond mothers teach 

 them their first lessons in bathing, or, if the water is 

 too cold for these aquatic performances so dear to all 

 denizens of the Happy Valley, they are sprinkled with 

 the chilly liquid while a surrounding crowd admires 

 the shiverings and shudderings and other signs of fear 

 of the little ones. So many strange ceremonies attend 

 the entrance into the world of Hindu boys that it would 

 be easy to believe that they were hardened for ever after 

 to curious and trying performances. So many unfavour- 

 able circumstances, too, surround their youth, the 

 survival of the fittest is so obviously the law of the 

 land, that it might be expected that the Kashmiri would 

 grow up a very hardy and brave creature. However, 

 the chroniclers of the country and its folk do not give 

 them a good character in this respect, and nearly all 

 historians speak with the utmost contempt of the 

 Kashmiri, perhaps forgetting that men, when neither 

 educated nor travelled, seldom show great valour 

 under new circumstances, and that in facing the dangers 

 of his own valley and such things as he has com- 

 prehension of fording stormy torrents, disentangling 

 and floating the great blocks of wood a very difficult 

 piece of work and making long marches under trying 

 circumstances the Kashmiri shows much courage and 

 endurance. For centuries, too, it must be remembered 

 Kashmir has had to pay a high price for its beauties, 

 and invader after invader has swept through, turning 

 this little place of fertile soil and refreshing rivers into 

 a holiday-ground for themselves and their lieutenants, 



