200 AFOOT THROUGH THE 



At intervals during the night the soughing of the 

 wind, the swish of the rain, the sound of the swift 

 stream swollen far beyond its normal size replaced 

 the soft mutterings of the woodland heard during the 

 preceding night, and effectually prevented sleep, so that 

 I was quite ready to dress by daybreak and be off on the 

 chance of a sight of Nanga Parbat, in case he should 

 reveal himself as is his wont in the early morning 

 sunlight. 



Floods of rain blotted out all view, and kept me in 

 my tent during the greater part of the day, and reduced 

 me to that becoming state of humility in which one 

 welcomes a moment or too of sunlight as an unexpected 

 blessing, and a dry islet anywhere as a realm of the 

 blessed. My entourage said so visibly by their expres- 

 sion, " We told you so," that my pride forbade me 

 ordering a move to drier regions. Moreover, I had all 

 along felt that Nanga Parbat was the shrine of my 

 pilgrimage, and, as it was impossible to get a nearer 

 view without many long and very difficult marches, 

 necessitating a far larger staff than I possessed, I felt 

 obliged either to wait with patience till he chose to reveal 

 himself to his waiting worshipper, or own myself 

 conquered by circumstances. 



Towards sunset a slight improvement set in, the 

 weather faired, and with skirts tucked high and discard- 

 ing my sandals for boots, I marched round the circular 

 road that rings the hillside below Gulmerg to see if 

 the sudden severing of the clouds would reveal some of 

 the distant ranges. The air came up from the valley 

 below in puffs of damp heat, the true breath of the 

 sodden rice fields then in their " searage," as they say 

 in my own country at home. At moments the thick 



