392 AN ENCHANTED GLEN. 



brought me milk, they entertained me with a corroboration 

 of Puddoo's version of the tale, and positively declared " it 

 was all quite true." 



Our next halt was at Seraitota, so called from some " serai " 

 (cypress) trees growing in the vicinity. We camped at the 

 foot of a wild gorge, which, on a former visit to these parts, 

 I had explored with Puddoo, who, well as he knew these 

 mountains, had never previous to that time been more than 

 a mile or two up it. As our expedition was not altogether 

 uneventful, I shall here make a digression, and endeavour 

 to briefly relate our experiences. 



At first Puddoo had tried to dissuade me from going up 

 this glen by telling me it was held in bad repute by the 

 villagers, who believed it to be the haunt of an evil spirit, 

 and that the tahr there bore charmed lives. The real truth, 

 I suspect, was, that being my first expedition with him, he 

 was doubtful as to what my capabilities might be at moun- 

 tain work, and therefore wished to avoid the responsibility 

 of having taken me to a place where the ground was reported 

 to be excessively bad, in the event of any accident occur- 

 ring. However, on returning to Seraitota, after hunting with 

 him farther up the Doulee valley, he made no more objec- 

 tions to our visiting this " enchanted glen." l 



At the hamlet of Tolma, hard by, we secured the services 

 of the " padan " (head-man), a queer old character named 

 Ganna, and also of two or three stout fellows to assist the 

 lower-range coolies I had brought with me thus far, who 

 were quite unaccustomed to carrying loads over such ground 

 as they would have to encounter up here. For some distance 

 we had no difficulty in getting along, up beside the torrent, 

 until the gorge took the form of an acute-angled V, where the 



1 This wild cafion is, I think, one of those alluded to by Mr Graham in a 

 graphic account, read at a meeting of the Royal Geographical Society in June 

 1884, of his attempt to reach the summits of the Doonagiri and Nandadevi 

 peaks. Even he, an experienced Alpine climber, remarks, "It is impos- 

 sible to exaggerate the difficulties of traversing these canons." 



