HIMMI VILLAGE 365 



After about 5 miles we arrived opposite the large 

 village of Himmi. Here there ought to have been a 

 bridge which would have enabled us to avoid a very 

 steep bit of ascent, but though the wood was lying 

 ready, no bridge had been built by the Himmi people. 

 So we had to leave the ponies here till the men could 

 return to them, and the drivers themselves took up the 

 loads. 



The track at this point led up, by what were practi- 

 cally a series of granite steps, over a shoulder of the 

 mountain about 500 feet high, the river end of the rock 

 being absolutely precipitous. The going at the top was 

 slippery, so the coolies went with their feet bare. From 

 here I took a photograph of Himmi village, which affords 

 a good example of the terraced cultivation of these arid 

 tracts. After going along at an elevation of about 500 

 feet, for some distance amongst granite boulders, where a 

 slip meant a clean drop into the Indus below, the track 

 descended to a strip of cultivation, which we followed 

 till we came to a bridge, by which we crossed to the left 

 bank of the river. But for finding this bridge, we should 

 have had another and much higher mass of granite 

 rocks to get over further on. 



The lambardar of Himmi met us near the bridge 

 with some coolies, to take my things from the pony-men, 

 whom he regaled with chang (a kind of barley-beer, 

 the national drink in Ladak) and sattoo. The sattoo, 

 or barley -meal, was put into the sriiall wooden saucer 

 which every Ladaki carries, and the chang poured on it. 

 The mixture was stirred up by the finger into a thick 

 gruel, and then gulped down. As far as I could make 



