CHAPTER II 



ON THE WAY TO MURREE 



EVERY four miles we have to stop and take fresh 

 horses. " Get ready, get ready," calls the tonga-horn 

 from the distance, and there at the roadside, in the 

 meagre shade afforded by a few dusty trees, stand 

 our fresh relays. The farther we go from Pindi, 

 the smaller, more hackneyed, shabbier, and more 

 waled the poor creatures become. Not until we get 

 to the neighbourhood of Murree and Srinagar do 

 they begin to look bigger and better-fed, and more 

 lively a tribute to civilisation, which forbids cruelty 

 to animals ! Mr Danjhibhoy, the proprietor of this 

 big mail and tonga service between Rawal Pindi and 

 Srinagar, knows his people. He feeds up the 

 thoroughbreds of the towns, and lets them go at a 

 gentle trot through the European quarter. But the 

 time lost by these fine-looking animals on good 

 roads must be made up for by the poor, bony 

 country-breds as they hobble over sticks and stones, 

 hills and valleys. The traveller does not care all 

 he wants is to get on. 



