68 SPORT IN THE HIGHLANDS OF KASHMIR chap. 



coolie, had to be helped. For a man who had travelled 

 much in these parts he proved exceedingly bad at going 

 over dangerous ground, and had a holy horror of rope 

 bridofes. 



The track on the opposite side involved a good deal 

 of climbing up difficult rocks, and along ledges projecting 

 from the sides of precipices, as already described, but we 

 made fairly steady progress till 11.25, when, finding a 

 stream which was clear and not the colour of pea-soup 

 with melting snow water, like most of the side streams 

 below Skardo, we stopped to breakfast. 



I was amused here by the manner in which Mahamdu 

 made himself a pipe. He prepared some mud, and 

 kneading it together, built with it a small mound over a 

 twig, which he then drew out, thus leaving a channel. 

 One end of this he opened out into a cup and filled with 

 tobacco. Over the other end he placed a bit of his lui, 

 and after lighting the tobacco, went down on his hands 

 and knees and sucked the smoke up through the lui. It 

 did not look a comfortable way of smoking, but apparently 

 it is the usual method on the Indus, for a yard or so from 

 where Mahamdu made his, I saw another pipe of 

 similar construction. Two coolies, on their way to get 

 work at Gilgit, passed us while we were there. They sat 

 down to have a drink at the stream, and noticing the 

 ready-made pipe on the ground, produced tobacco and a 

 match, and had a smoke just after Mahamdu's fashion. 

 The Tandstikkor is the ordinary match used by the 

 Baltis. 



Shortly after leaving the breakfast place we met a 

 post coolie belonging to Major Morland, one of the two 



