6 Sport and Life in the Further Himalaya 



foot hanging over a sheer drop of hundreds of 

 feet; along crazy wooden galleries hanging on 

 to walls of rock, through the chinks in which the 

 river can be seen boiling below. It is a Chitrali's 

 " swagger " never to dismount where a pony can 

 get a foothold at all ; and some of the places 

 where a Chitrali pony can go would turn the 

 quadruped that some years ago used to perform 

 under the name of "the Blondin donkey" ill with 

 fear. Eiding along one of these roads is therefore 

 not an amusement for people with nerves. The 

 road is not all like this, however ; often it winds 

 on the level through fields and villages, orchards 

 and vineyards. It is variety that pleases, and 

 here one can often experience three of the seasons 

 in a single day. Where high up the road creeps 

 along the mountain-side at a dizzy elevation above 

 the river, whose roar is borne faintly upwards 

 on the* breeze, it is early spring, with snow lying 

 in patches here and there, and the young barley 

 just beginning to show its head ; 2000 feet lower, 

 one is in the land of blossoms, and the air is 

 full of the scent of flowers and the hum of bees 

 busy among wild roses such as are seen nowhere 

 else ; while down close to the roaring river crops 

 are being cut, and the apricot-trees are breaking 

 with their golden load. Chitral, indeed, is in 

 summer the realisation of the poet's ideal 



