FIRST CLIMB BEYOND SRINAGAR 49 



family. On the ground floor are situated the winter 

 stalls, manure above and below by way of protec- 

 tion against wind and weather. Round holes in the 

 front walls serve as chimneys, and also provide air 

 and light as far as the smoke will allow. 



Layers of filth, collected in the course of years, 

 supply the place of lime and mortar. In the centre 

 of the bare floor is the fire-hole, in which crackles 

 dried cow-dung beneath a sooty pot. This odd 

 firing lies closer at hand than the wood from the 

 hills. Such are the ancestral halls of Cashmere, and 

 thus do their inmates arrange their lives. 



They are a dirty people, very dirty, but very 

 friendly towards strangers, kind and polite. They 

 seem to be industrious, modest, and enduring. But 

 they have no Bavarian yodel in their throats ; there 

 is no slapping of the thighs in a sprightly dance, nor 

 do they wear the chamois' beard in their hats. 



The women of Cashmere are supposed to be 

 specially beautiful they have this reputation over 

 the whole of India, probably because they have 

 fairer complexions than their sisters in the plains. 

 This is most likely the reason why the big-wigs at 

 the time of the Mongolian rule replenished their 

 harems with Cashmere women. Their children 

 might therefore justly be looked upon as the de- 

 scendants of emperors ! 



" Guard your heart against the serpents of Cash- 

 mere," runs an old Indian proverb. 



4 



