158 AFOOT THROUGH THE 



practically without properties, saving their pencil, 

 their drawing board, and, best of all furnishings, 

 an imaginative, active brain. Some I watched 

 were adapting old patterns, others enlarging from 

 tiny drawings sent by customers, the greater number 

 making original designs, while not far distant were 

 the men employed in writing out the directions 

 in long narrow strips that I had heard the boys 

 reading to the workers. So that weary eyes might 

 be refreshed while engaged in that tiring work, pots 

 of greenery were placed at the ends of the room, offering 

 a soothing contrast to the cramped figures and forms 

 locked up for so many hours daily. 



The artistic perfection and material squalor were a 

 strange contrast men at a wage of a few annas a day 

 doing work of priceless value ; it was reminiscent of the 

 Italian Middle Ages, and afforded considerable food 

 for thought! Low as the wages are, these factories 

 have been a great boon to the poor Kashmiri shawl 

 makers, who, since the decline of their industry at 

 the time of the Franco-Prussian war, have been the 

 most miserable class in the country. Many have now 

 become carpet-makers, and as their wares become better 

 known and their artistic and technical goodness under- 

 stood, more will be employed and higher wages given. 



Returning to my own boat I was beguiled into the 

 shop of a worker in enamels, who, waving in front of 

 me an exquisite lamp of gilded brass decorated with 

 many and bright colours, led me into his den, and, 

 cunning comprehender of female character, he insisted 

 on making me tea of the finest before he would show 

 me anything, thereby making sure of binding me to 

 purchase something after partaking of his hospitality. 



