72 A Sportswoman in India 



formidable animals almost as long as my hand. We 

 did not fall in love with this creeping company, so 

 he gathered them up, crumpled them one by one in 

 his hand, and they disappeared ! Then he waved his 

 thin, bare arms in the air, and a live cobra appeared 

 to drop into one hand. Its fangs had been extracted, 

 and he threw it into the midst of us. But how he 

 did these extraordinary feats I have not the faintest 

 idea. 



After this lively entertainment we had to hurry 

 away to ride up to the charred ruins of the fort with 

 Captain Anderson and Captain Bruce, on a couple of 

 ponies they had provided. It was a stiff climb, but 

 the view both up and down the pass was fine, and 

 looking down on to the little camp, with its regular 

 lines of tents and pathways between marked out with 

 white stones, much incident was mutely expressed. 

 But the view we had was afterwards from the top of 

 one of the hills near the fort ; it was a panorama. 

 Afghanistan, the land of mystery and treachery, lay 

 before us in the far distance, and the Kabul River 

 wound like a grey thread across the plain. 



Ford ford ford o } Kabul River 

 'Cross the Kabul River in the dark. . . . 



Visions of the disastrous fording of that river by 

 the loth Hussars rose up before one. It was one 

 night in March, 1879, that a squadron was ordered 

 to cross and surprise the enemy. The ford was 

 nothing more than a sandbank, and splashing along 



