1 66 A Sportswoman in India 



The Ladakis, Baltis, and Dards are hardy, simple, 

 clumsy people, dirty (washing, it is said, once a year, 

 but not regularly), and fond of social gatherings ; they 

 play polo. They are beardless, with rather flat noses. 

 In Ladak polyandry is general. 



The widespread prestige of China is curiously 

 illustrated by the fact that tribute, though disguised 

 as a present, is paid to her for Ladak by the Rajah 

 of Kashmir. It must be understood that the actual 

 Valley of Kashmir is only a small part of the whole 

 State, which includes Gilgit, Baltistan, Kishtwar, Jamu, 

 and Ladak. 



We waded through two ice-water streams, cold 

 beyond all description, which tumbled down from 

 the snows above ; and we clambered over a great 

 glacier many tens of yards thick. A stream ran 

 underneath the glacier, and we stood in the cave 

 formed by it as it went in, a cool cavern, a real " ice- 

 house," with its shining, shingly floor, its blue-green 

 sides and roof, ribbed and polished and wet the 

 coldest place in the world. In the shades at the end 

 of the cavern, by tortuous windings where the torrent 

 had eaten its way, it boiled along, thundering to itself 

 far away in the heart of the glacier, after it had dis- 

 appeared in the sinuosities of the walls, 



Through caverns measureless to man, 

 Down to a sunless sea. 



The wind outside was deliciously dry and bracing, even 

 if it was cold. As Euripides said of the Athenians, 



