KASHMIR VALLEYS 24H 



merchant, who asked me to read to him a letter just 

 arrived enclosing some money. This had been sent by 

 an officer who had taken with him some Kabuli stamps, 

 and as there had been no guide to their value, he had 

 not bargained, but promised to send the full catalogued 

 price when he could find again a catalogue, and this he 

 had done immediately on his return, sending 

 quite double what had been originally asked! The 

 coinage causes a little difficulty owing to the 

 difference between the native rupee, the " chilki," 

 worth about ten annas, and the Imperial rupee, 

 of sixteen annas. There is also a "kham" rupee in 

 circulation, bearing the letters I.H.S., about which there 

 are many strange tales, and this being a land of small 

 payments, care should be taken to impress the value of 

 the coin given on the payee, for the ignorant people are 

 sadly victimised by the changers. 



The modern royal buildings in Srinagar are hardly 

 things of beauty or worth a visit, but it is pleasant to 

 think that all concerned in these works have been paid 

 in coin, and the old meritricious system of payment in 

 kind, a great source of misery to the people, has been 

 completely superseded. The waterworks at Srinagar 

 have alone put over three million rupees into circulation 

 for wages, and many other public works are in progress. 



H.H. has done much to help the suffering, and his 

 hospitals and State dispensaries are not only charming 

 buildings, many of them brightened with pretty gardens, 

 but they have conferred a boon so great it is difficult to 

 estimate, for, though as a race Kashmiris are sturdy 

 and healthy, insanitary conditions produce terrible 

 epidemics and cause a great deal of suffering, and among 

 the cultivators the conditions of rice-growing lend them- 



