THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH. 95 



thing for a little mountain youth of this kind to 

 commit himself to an indefinitely long journey with 

 people whom, with the exception of Phooleyram, he 

 had never seen before. His motive for doing so was 

 a desire to see the world and a hope of bettering his 

 condition in it, for there was no necessity for him to 

 leave Shaso. There was great lamentation when he 

 left ; his mother and sisters caressing him, and weep- 

 ing over him, and beseeching us to take good care of 

 him. The original idea was that Nurdass should re- 

 turn to the Sutlej valley along with Phooleyram, when 

 that casteman of his should leave us, whether in Spiti 

 or Kashmir. But in Chinese Tibet Phooleyram 

 pulled the little fellow's ears one night, and, in de- 

 fence of this, most gratuitously accused him of being 

 tipsy, when, if anybody had been indulging, it was 

 only the Mtinshi himself. This made me doubtful 

 about sending him back the long way from Kashmir 

 to the Sutlej in company with Phooleyram alone; 

 and on speaking to him on the subject, I found that 

 he was quite frightened at the prospect, and was not 

 only willing but eager to go with me to Bombay, 

 both because he wished to see a place of which he 

 had heard so much, and because the season was so far 

 advanced he was afraid he might not be able to reach 

 his own home before spring. So Kurdass came on 

 with me to Bombay, were he excited much interest by 

 his intelligence and open disposition; and I might 

 have taken him on farther with me had he been in- 



