CASHMERE BELLES. 207 



from India, chiefly officials of the sword or the 

 pen, who were passing the summer months in this 

 bracing climate, and as a fair sprinkling of the 

 gentler sex usually graced these gatherings, they 

 were very pleasant. Sometimes this routine was 

 varied by a pic-nic or a nautch in one of the many 

 gardens on the banks of the lake, and on these 

 occasions boating by moonlight was truly de- 

 lightful ; but I must not allow myself to enter into 

 any description of the Cashmere beauties, with 

 their dark lustrous eyes, long braided tresses, and 

 graceful forms, or I shall scarcely know when to 

 lay down my pen. Sufficeth to say, in the words 

 of the poet Ferishta : — 



" I basked in the light of their almond-shaped eyes, 

 That like the rays of the sun inspired me with life ; 

 I feasted upon unsullied coy beauty in shady bowers, 

 As the bee culls honey from flowers of every hue ; 

 I inhaled the overpowering perfume of their breath, 

 Which soothes the senses like the fragrant scent of the jasmin. 

 I listened to the soothing melody of their sweet-toned voices, 

 That the night-birds of the grove hearing, drooped their heads 



and became silent ; 

 I yielded to embraces, that though gentle as the clinging of the 

 tendrils of the vine, 



