148 Sport and Life in the Further Himalaya 



the branches. The whole juniper-tree was thus 

 decorated, and presented quite a gay appearance. 

 My orderly, with the superior knowledge of one 

 who had travelled in railway-trains, was at first 

 inclined to make fun of the tale, but catching 

 sight on ahead of two similar pillars the summit 

 of each of which, high up against the sky, was 

 topped by a big flat stone, he became grave and 

 remarked that one such stone might have been 

 an accident, but three altogether was obviously 

 the work of the unseen army. So he too 

 solemnly tore a strip off his blue paggri and 

 attached it to a vacant twig. I contributed a 

 cigarette-end and we passed on. The guide was 

 relating as we went along how people that had 

 passed that stone at night had been seized by 

 strong arms from behind and borne away. I 

 capped his story by telling how an Englishman, 1 

 climbing Nanga Purbat some years ago, had been 

 seized by the same folk and was still imprisoned 

 there. My guide gravely accepted the story, and 

 so we descended into the gorge in quite a ghostly 

 state of trepidation. 



Crossing the torrent by a bridge of avalanche 



1 This is the story related by the Chilas people about the disap- 

 pearance of the well-known climber Mummery, whilst ascending 

 one of the minor peaks of this mountain. There can be little doubt 

 that he, with his Goorkha companion, were swept away by an 

 avalanche. 



