A Day in Chitral 3 



consequently less wild and more alpine in 

 character. 



Let us now make a closer inspection of one of 

 these Chitrali villages. It is entered by a bridle- 

 path, across which a little brooklet zigzags from 

 side to side in independent fashion, serving to 

 conduct the water of the neighbouring streams to 

 the lower cultivated terraces. Magnificent horse- 

 chestnut trees cast a shadow delightful to the 

 traveller after the heat and glare of the bare hill- 

 side, and the air is filled with the murmur of 

 running water and the scent brought out of 

 foliage by a burning sun. On either side the 

 path are walled enclosures, and a stranger, by 

 standing up in his stirrups, can see over into 

 one of the Chitrali gardens famed all over the 

 Western Himalaya. It is in reality more an 

 orchard than a garden, but one with exquisitely 

 kept turf. At one end is the flat-roofed house 

 where lives the owner, and farther off the 

 buildings which give shelter, if he be of the 

 upper class, to his serfs. Presently he will 

 arrive at an open space where, sitting on raised 

 seats round a gigantic chestnut, the greybeards 

 of the village sit and discuss the latest doings 

 in Chitral. Farther on the polo -ground is en- 

 tered, a long, narrow, rectangular enclosure with 

 walled sides, at present deserted but for a party 



