Leh 185 



II. 



What Port Said is to the Suez Canal, Leh is to 

 the Central Asian Trade Eoad. The busy season is 

 in the summer, when the high passes to North and 

 South are " open." The rows of shops in the 

 streets and bazaars, which stand with closed doors 

 during the winter months, are then open and glow- 

 ing with Eastern wares. 



Twice a-week during the season the main street 

 is cleared of its busy crowd and the polo players 

 have it to themselves. Up and down they career 

 with wild yells, urging their shaggy ponies with 

 whip and heel. The heavy ball of willow wood 

 flies into the shop windows and on to the roofs of 

 the houses, both crowded with spectators ; but 

 here plate glass is unknown and heads are hard, so 

 what matter ! 



At this time the caravan - sarais are full of 

 merchants and their goods. A visitor on entering 

 one of these is struck by a peculiar aromatic odour, 

 due to piled-up bales of the drug known as charas, 

 the chief import from Chinese Turkestan. Though 

 dealings in any intoxicating drug and this form 

 of hemp is beyond all others harmful is forbidden 

 to the Prophet's followers, but few of the trading 

 community resist the temptation of engaging in the 



