132 DISADVANTAGES OF EARLY RISING. 



and other grain crops. The mischief done 

 to tlie crops and gardens by the bears is 

 very great, and in most parts of the hills a 

 kind of nest, or exalted sentry-box, is con- 

 structed to enable a watch to be kept during 

 the night, and many bears are killed annually 

 whilst foraging. 



A proud man is a villager when he has 

 succeeded in killing a bear, and not long- 

 since, an old Puharrie, bent upon accom- 

 plishing this feat, got up one morning very 

 early, and taking his matchlock sallied forth 

 quietly in search of a bear. His wife being 

 an early riser had gone out before him, and 

 was weeding the field in the gray of the 

 morning. The husband seeing a dark object 

 moving about in the field, took her for a 

 bear (and stooping down in her dark dress 

 she would be by that light not unlike one), 

 fired, and killed his poor old wife ; which 

 was the end of the aftair, for in these hills 

 there are no coroner's inquests. In Cashmere 

 an officer's servant, having by accident killed a 

 man in an apricot tree, mistaking him in like 



