KASHMIR VALLEYS 165 



near at hand to end their argument on the spot, and 

 adjourned the finish till the following day, inverting 

 their grain-sifters where they had been using them, in 

 token that they would not forget ! 



It was nearly eight as we passed the Amiran Kadal, 

 the first bridge, the rushing current, pent up unnaturally 

 between the piers, forcing the men to use their best 

 efforts if they wished to pass under. The last rays of 

 the setting sun caught various gilded domes and pin- 

 nacles, and added a beauty to the strange modern Hindu 

 fanes generally lacking in the garish daylight. The 

 various heights in the city the Takht-i-Suleiman and 

 Hari Parbat stood out darkly against the deep blue 

 vault, and as the moon rose shared the flood of her soft 

 radiance with the dark mountains behind, other 

 paddlers shouted greetings as we passed, women sitting 

 in the latticed windows of the high houses craned out 

 to see who was abroad so late. All the bustle of the 

 earlier daylight hours was gone, and the city enjoyed 

 that social intercourse which is the Eastern idea of 

 spending night, not wasting in sleep the pleasant cool- 

 time, but waiting for the cold dawn to commence his 

 rest, the second part of which is enjoyed when the 

 mid-day heat makes all exercise dffficult and unpleasant. 

 My headman waited me on the bank as I neared the 

 doonga, anxious lest an accident should have delayed 

 me, and there already, tempting to a hungry, chilly 

 mortal, was the little dinner table spread with its 

 embroidered cloth, my newest acquisition, spread out 

 to please the eyes, and a savoury smell pervading, 

 suggestive of a quick soulagement of my hunger pangs. 



