KASHMIR VALLEYS 231 



CHAPTER XIX 



Think in this battered caravanserai, 



Whose portals are alternate night and day, 



How Sultan after Sultan with his pomp 

 Aljode his destined hour and went his way. 



Omar Khayyam. 



A few facts, and still fewer names, indicating the history of 

 Kashmir Kings, ancient and modern, of varying tempera- 

 ments, ending with a model ruler. 



IT is a strange thing how well the face of a country 

 may be studied and known, and yet its history but faintly 

 understood. In the course of my tramps I had gathered 

 a few facts about Kashmir, but I really knew but little 

 of its early chronicles or even older traditions, so I was 

 glad of the days of idleness prior to my final departure 

 to study such modern compilations as I could obtain. 

 Most useful of these and I am glad here to own to my 

 indebtedness was Mr. Lawrence's splendid work on the 

 land he did so much for. Government reports do not 

 usually err on the side of attractiveness or lucidity so far 

 as the outside reader is concerned, but this one is a 

 model of clearness and conciseness, not to mention the 

 superlative quality of accuracy, and so, though I read 

 many other histories, his notes on the political ante- 

 cedents of the State, whose financial rescue he achieved, 



