A BALTI COOLIE. 



A SUMMER IN HIGH ASIA. 



against the attacks of the enemy whom it was 

 constructed to withstand. 



Crossing a rickety cantilever bridge, from which 

 an Englishman, we were told, had 

 fallen and been drowned some few 

 years back, we galloped on to the 

 camping-ground, which is an en- 

 closure with a few unhappy-looking 

 poplars, the only trees in the valley, 

 planted round it, just in time to 

 escape a terrific hail-storm. The population of 

 Dras is a mixed one, consisting of Baltis, a few 

 Ladakis, Dards, and a sect known as Brokpa. Here 

 we changed our Kashmiri coolies, who had come 

 from Goond, for Baltis. The Balti coolie is a 

 curious-looking being. He shaves the back of his 

 head, the hair escaping from his little rolled-up cap in 

 long ringlets that hang on either side over his ears ; 

 it seems marvellous how his garments, consisting 

 of a coarsely-woven tunic and pyjamas, can hold 

 together, so ragged are they, whilst his legs and 

 feet are clad in boots, of which the upper part is 

 composed of rough skins and the sole of bundles of 

 rags, with a view to protecting his feet from the 

 terrible sharp stones and boulders of which the 

 roads in his country are composed. Every Balti 

 coolie carries a needle and thread to sew these 

 rags together when occasion demands, and it is 

 by no means an uncommon sight to see him sitting 

 down by the roadside repairing his foot gear. A 



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