KASHMIR VALLEYS 



157 



are completed, some as large as sixty by thirty feet; 

 every thread is strong, soft, enduring, and the prices 

 merely range according to the quality of wool from, 

 perhaps, sixteen rupees a square yard to ninety, one 

 hundred, and one hundred and sixty for the finest. It 

 is a constrained, hard life for such young folk, and 

 they contrive some pleasant relaxations, catching an 

 unfavoured neighbour a sly whack with the fork, or 

 digging a too superior " head-boy " with the weighty 

 scissors. 



Group of Hindu artists 



Beautiful old Persian and Kashmiri patterns are 

 imitated, and the colouring, save in rare instances where 

 Europeans have insisted on choosing home models 

 to be copied, is never at fault. 



The people who make these perfect patterns, and 

 are the brains to these countless pairs of active hands, 

 work in small, dark rooms, almost without accessories, 



