KASHMIR AND THE HIMALAYAS IN MID-WINTER. 241 



merit. He was, moreover, a Pashawari ; lie had been 

 anxious to bring with, him a man whom he described as a 

 relation, who was willing to accept six rupees (8s. 6d.) 

 per month and find his own food, and act as a coolie. 

 This man, however, who was a heavy, powerful 

 Afghan, gave me the impression of being a runaway 

 Pathan or Afridee from some family blood feud ; and, 

 without any special reason, except that he had given 

 vent to some expressions of which I could not approve, I 

 dismissed him on the second day of our march into 

 Kashmir at the resthouse, or dak bungalow, on the 

 banks of the Jhelurn atKohala, where the Maharajah's 

 territory commences. There are more murders, most 

 of them of the nature of the vendetta of Corsica or 

 Sardinia, within the districts of Peshawar, than in any 

 other part of India, and special laws have been in 

 force for many years. Peshawar is full of men from 

 the independent tribes beyond our boundaries, who 

 have fled from the vengeance of their wives' or their 

 own relatives, for our Arms Act is enforced very 

 strictly, and here they feel comparatively safe, yet not 

 daring for years together to sleep near any light, for 

 fear of getting shot at. In fact one might almost 

 fancy oneself in the Emerald Isle. Such a man was 

 this, or such he seemed, and I was glad when after 

 weeping copiously he at length took his departure for 

 Peshawar, and only little Kassim Ali Khan remained 

 with me, and my seven Kashmiri coolies, whom I 

 engaged, as mentioned below, at Murree, and who 

 were going to carry my effects upon their backs all the 



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