KASHMIR VALLEYS 251 



manner of existence, and it is no surprising thing to 

 meet a sahib by the roadside waiting at the 

 nearest dak bungalow for his kit to arrive at 

 some place a hundred miles away, or to pass, 

 lying peacefully under a shady tree, a pony 

 tethered close by waiting for a master due for a station 

 a week's journey off. 



We picked up that day, and conveyed for a 

 short distance a cheery and optimistic sub., who 

 thought his things ought to be somewhere about, as 

 he had seen them off by the more usual route three 

 weeks before, while he in " light marching order," I 

 believe it consisted of a pal (small tent without centre 

 pole) and one cooking pot but there may have been 

 some small etceteras came with a pony over the passes 

 from the Poonch country. Subsequently I heard he 

 found the major portion of his belongings awaiting him 

 at Dulai, just within Kashmir territory, but a sun topi, 

 a pony, and a poshteen (sheepskin coat) were not 

 retrieved till days later, they having tumbled over the 

 " khud " (cliff side), and though not much injured, they 

 had preferred remaining in the village they had literally 

 fallen upon to rejoining the other servants, who had 

 not been at all worried by their absence. 



It is impossible to lose things in such a 

 country where every one is either known or to 

 be heard of, and cases dumped down on the road- 

 side a hundred miles from everywhere, or ponies stranded 

 in distant mountain passes, all come home to roost at 

 last. I speak from experience, for a trunk of mine 

 strayed away over the Himalayas, was carried to Chitral 

 with the Reliefs, got stowed away in a go-down of a 

 carrying agent, and finally met me at a down-country 

 T 



