186 



AFJ00T THROUGH THE 



on their backs, and bearing forward on their 

 strong sticks to support them, and I inquired 

 of the distance. " The smoke of two pipes," 

 was the unlucid answer. I have not yet smoked a 

 native pipe, so the length of time taken to finish one 

 was unknown to me. But they told me that above the 

 weather had been very bad, that snow had fallen a day 

 or two before, and much rain was soon expected. As 

 I contemplated camping this was not reassuring, for 



Gulmerg bazaar 



I had been warned what Gulmerg could be when really 

 damp. 



The coolies told me there was a shorter route up 

 than the one I had come, and it would probably be taken 

 by my retainers. This spurred me to renewed efforts, 

 hoping I should not be kept too long waiting at the 

 top for them. The air was distinctly cooler, for I was 

 some three thousand feet higher than my last resting- 

 place, Magam, and with a little effort I was really up 

 on a level with the tiny bazaar still empty, for the 

 Parsee merchants who come up in the summer were still 



