138 SPORT AND TRAVEL 



natives, in their long puttoo coats, were tearing up 

 and down the field on shaggy little ponies, with rude, 

 short mallets, and chasing a rough-hewn ball. A 

 small crowd of Baltis watched the game from a 

 large rock which formed a sort of grand-stand, while 

 a flute and drum supplied weird native music for 

 the occasion ; and as we took our seats on the rock, 

 the players, seeing their audience increased by two 

 weary but appreciative sahibs, went at it with re- 

 doubled energy, and gave as fine an exhibition of 

 polo as the primitive quality of field, sticks, and 

 ball would allow a strange scene to find in such a 

 wilderness. The game finished, a native dance was 

 performed for our further amusement, and we were 

 then ceremoniously escorted by the lumbardar, who 

 was captain of one of the teams, to the serai or 

 rest-house of the village, where the usual gifts of 

 nuts and dried apricots were brought us. The ripe 

 apricot is too small to make a good fruit, but dried 

 and pressed into balls of a dozen or so each, they 

 form what is known as kobani an indigestible but 

 very delicious sweetmeat. These offerings of dried 

 fruit and nuts from the lumbardars were never 

 omitted in the villages through which we passed; 

 perhaps they knew it meant baksheesh to many 

 times the worth of their gifts, but we accepted and 

 paid for them cheerfully. 



