KASHMIR VALLEYS 255 



result, required a whole hierarchy of teachers, 

 a tremendous load of precepts. It was incomprehensible 

 and called for an explanation or two; these 

 were satisfactory; and then he said in an aston- 

 ished voice, : ' You seem to have the same kind 

 of Bible as we have; not as I knows much 

 of it, but I hear the chaplain and that is the sort 

 of way he talks." The Sikh's voice took a curious mystic 

 tone, " It is all one, but we have our way and you have 

 yours; we live and die and have our gods which are 

 really one; ours is the better way, but all paths lead 

 to the same end." This the khaki one was not inclined 

 to agree to. It was all very well talking to a native, and 

 this one seemed a decent one, and, being a lancer, was 

 likely to be some good ; but he could not allow a religion 

 to be called the same as his, which worshipped elephant- 

 headed gods, was prodigal with scents and flowers, and 

 permitted plurality of wives and child-marriage. His 

 remarks, as customary with his countrymen, were stated 

 curtly, a trifle contemptuously. His antagonist was 

 perfectly courteous; far more accurate and cultured, a 

 little conceited, perhaps. He submitted that they did 

 not worship idols, " certain figures, Krishna, Ganesh, 

 etc., embodied attributes of the ' great unknown '; you, 

 too, have figures, I have seen them in your churches." 

 As for the wife question, that is not correct for a well- 

 bred native to discuss, but child-marriage and the veiling 

 of the women were memorials of rougher times, stormy 

 periods for the weak, he explained, no part of their 

 scheme of life. When the Mussulman was all- 

 powerful in the land, the only possible protection to 

 women was by the covering of their faces, and as the 

 Mussulman freebooter frequently kidnapped young 



