226 TEAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



10,000 feet, and he seemed a highly respectable old 

 officer. His quarters are detached some way from 

 the large fort where the most of his troops are 

 stationed ; and I suppose these latter are not much 

 needed now, unless for purposes of oppression. Dras 

 is a dependency of Kashmir, being one of the provinces 

 which have been added to it by Mohammedan force 

 and Hindi! fraud, which do not fail, in the long-run, to 

 break the shield of the mountaineers. This valley 

 is sometimes called Himbab, or the " Source of Snow," 

 which must be a very suitable name for it, if that 

 prodigious story about the forty feet of snow be true. 

 There remains, however, another pass to be 

 crossed before we get into the valleys of even 

 Upper Kashmir. A very cold and wet day's journey 

 took us up the Dras river to the miserable hamlet 

 of Mataan, where, before getting out of my tent next 

 morning, I learned that the Yarkand envoy could not 

 be far off. I heard a loud voice crying out, Gaffe 

 banao, cha banao "Make coffee, make tea," fol- 

 lowed by whack, whack, as the blows of a stick 

 descended upon a man's back. This turned out to 

 be the Wuzeer's "Wuzeer, or the envoy's avant-courier, 

 who was pushing on ahead of his patron, and pre- 

 paring the way. Like many gentlemen's gentlemen, 

 he was extremely indignant at the comforts of life 

 not being ready for him. I do not believe that 

 this miserable hamlet of Mataan could have turned 

 out a cup of tea or coffee to save the lives of all 



