THE AMARNATH PILGRIMS 189 



the water glitters bright with all the brilliance of 

 the hot southern plains. 



Two days the summer pilgrims rest at Verinag, 

 below the mountain pass. Then they toil on 

 to Achibal, over the stony Sandrin river-bed, and 

 up the rugged hill behind Shahabad, which is 

 covered in the early summer with creamy peonies 

 and the lovely Kashmir rose; the wild rose 

 resembling masses of bright pink gorse so close 

 the flowers, so prickly their stems. The temple 

 of Martand, on the plateau above Islamabad, 

 is the third place of pilgrimage ; the splendid 

 ruin through whose colonnade the ninety miles 

 of valley can be seen. To the north, at the 

 foot of the Martand plateau, is Bawan ; and far 

 up, near the glaciers at the head of the Lidar 

 River, lies Amarnath Cave, with its frozen spring 

 representing Siva the Preserver. This is the 

 goal of the pilgrimage, the whole object of all 

 these weary months of marching. Here the 

 poorer pilgrims turn homewards; and they are 

 nearly all poor, these travellers by the old 

 Jummu way. So they rarely journey farther 

 down the main Kashmir valley, or see Srinagar, 

 with its water-streets, its curiously carved shops 

 and houses, its Imperial lake-side gardens, and 



