A SUMMER IN HIGH ASIA. 



we come to the dwellings of the Europeans, the 

 houses of the Moravian Mission (whose members, 

 Mr. and Mrs. Weber and Mr. Shawe, are untiring 

 in their kindness, and in doing everything they can 

 to make things pleasant for the European traveller), 

 the Joint-Commissioner's house, which stands in a 

 grove of well-grown trees, and where there are 

 both grass and flowers in the " compound," and the 

 u Dak Bungalow " next door, which can also boast 

 of a fine row of poplars, and contains three sets of 

 rooms for travellers. The Joint-Commissioner had 

 very kindly given me leave to make use of his 

 vegetable garden, should I be in Leh during his 

 absence, and, as he was unfortunately still detained 

 in making a bridge near K argil, I took advantage 

 of his kindness. 



Never before had cabbages and salad tasted so 

 good ; to appreciate green vegetables thoroughly 

 one must go without them for a couple of months 

 or so. For my part, I had been living on potatoes 

 and compressed vegetables ever since I had left 

 Kashmir the latter a sort of stuff that is very good 

 in its way (you cook a square inch and it enlarges 

 itself into a plateful of chopped-up carrots, &c ), 

 but is not quite the real thing ; besides, after eating 

 it daily for some weeks, you get rather tired of it. 

 I had fed on the wild rhubarb of Baltistan, which 

 was good but insipid, and on one occasion had even 

 tried grass, not on all fours like Nebuchadnezzar or 

 an Ovis Ammon, but cooked like spinach ; I didn't 



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