Leh 175 



pony. Add to these, traders, footmen armed 

 and unarmed, grooms, and attendants. 



Though we had started before dawn, by this 

 time the sun beat down on the sandy plains 

 and black fantastic-shaped rocks of Ladak with 

 the intensity peculiar to elevated regions. 



Presently we are among the fields and orchards 

 surrounding the town, and the sight of green 

 things is delightful. We traverse a narrow lane, 

 turn a corner, and pass from the silence of the 

 desert into a street thick with sightseers in 

 all manner of queer and picturesque costumes. 

 Simultaneously the air begins to throb with 

 the deep notes of great trumpets sounded from 

 the monastery above. The air is full of dust. 

 From a group of "red" lamas on a roof pro- 

 ceeds a burst of ecclesiastical music, solemnly 

 discordant. A brass band, the members of which 

 blow wildly into their instruments with no regard 

 to tune, add to the din. The crowd make way, 

 and we are met with a buzz of "joo joo " and 

 " salaam aleikum." At the turning into the 

 square a troop of Kashmiri dancing boys, at- 

 tended by their minstrels, begin to pose. Then 

 by the sarai and the rosy -faced Yarkandis at 

 its gates, down the straight road which borders 

 the Moravian mission enclosure and through 

 the Agency gateway, above which floats the 



