3 8 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR 



of sandfly, I suppose they bit me on the eyelids, 

 and in the morning they were so swollen that I could 

 not see. There was also one flea. Moreover, in the 

 middle of the night it rained heavily and dripped 

 down from the eaves, so that we had to get up 

 frequently and shake the water off the top rugs before 

 it had time to soak through. It was not a very 

 restful night, but still we could lie and think of our 

 mosquito curtains so near only on the other side 

 of the Ravi. 



At last, after some days' waiting, our kit was 

 brought in, and the khidmatgar, with the heavier 

 loads, managed to find a bridge and join us. He 

 brought some flour too, and other food, also eight 

 large yellow puff-balls wrapped in a dirty duster. 

 He seemed so proud of them we thought it might 

 hurt his feelings if we did not eat them ; so we tried 

 them and really found them quite good. 



We had now to begin our marches back to Chamba, 

 as leave was drawing to a close. We stayed for a 

 few days at a place called Bassu. The day we 

 arrived there it was raining hard and the chief man 

 of the place asked us to use part of his house to put 

 up in a big wooden building with a large courtyard 

 in the middle. It had an upper storey, and there my 

 tent was pitched, in a large room open to the air 

 on two sides : and Will's was pitched outside. It 

 seemed funny to go upstairs to one's tent, but a good 

 roof overhead was rather a comfort and so was dry 

 ground underfoot. The entrance hall we used as a 

 dining-room, and the village people took the greatest 

 interest in watching us and seeing what we did and 



