CHAPTER XIII 



FIFTH BRIDGE, SRINAGAR 



IF, dear reader, you wish to make the acquaintance 

 of the Canale Grande in its most prosaic form, do not 

 go to Venice. Just let yourself be floated down the 

 Jhelum between the walls of the houses of Srinagar. 

 Here you will get a true and unvarnished picture, 

 and here nothing is hidden from the naked eye : 

 neither mankind and his doings, nor the animals, 

 nor the houses. All are exposed to view, and every- 

 thing is a dirty yellow, except the water, which is 

 black. 



As in a kaleidoscope, master-pieces of Oriental 

 life in all its filth and misery pass before our eyes. 

 But only those who have witnessed it in the places 

 of execution at Canton and in the palm gardens of 

 Colombo can form any exact idea of its contrasts. 

 Irises and lilies grow on the roofs, whilst human 

 beings grow up on dung-heaps, and, like the sharp- 

 nosed, four-legged beasts, roll about and sun them- 

 selves wherever the filth and dirt lie thickest and 



form the softest couch ! 



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