518 Notes of a trip from Simla to the Spiti Valley. [No. 5, 



and should. Whilst the row lasted, I was reminded of that spirited 

 passage in the Cid where the Cid's knight strikes in the Council one 

 of the Counts of Carrion. 



" Then arose the cry of Cabra, 

 Here Valencia the fair, 

 There Castille and here Galicia : 

 Many a war cry rent the air." 



In something under an hour, however, terms were come to, and 

 the coolies agreed to act, if firstly they were paid in advance,, and 

 secondly if the headman, in consideration of their acting in place of 

 men he was hound to furnish, would present them with a fat sheep 

 for dinner. Matters thus arranged, peace and good humour were 

 restored, and the headman carried them all off to his house under 

 pretext of hospitality, hut also, I suspect, to guard against their 

 changing their mind during the night. As I had already, in consi- 

 deration of the hardship of the road, paid the coolies douhle the usu- 

 al hire, I was somewhat at a loss to account for their unwillingness 

 to earn an additional sum, and their preferring to return empty hand- 

 ed. As, however, I am not one of those ingenious theorists who 

 solve such questions by supposing " niggers" act on principles un- 

 intelligible to other mortals, I made some enquiry and soon found a 

 reasonable ground for their conduct. The coolies I found were fur- 

 nished by the headman of Kiba who supplied them with food, but 

 appropriated their wages himself. No wonder, therefore, the poor 

 fellows objected to so much extra labour, from which they would reap 

 small advantage. The traveller is powerless to remedy this, save by 

 a small present which he may make to the men themselves, and in 

 this case a few annas a piece, with the sheep they got at Korzo, made 

 all happy and contented. 



17th. — Return to former camping ground at the south end of lake. 



On the march, it being a fine sunny day, captured a number of 

 small lizards among the stony ground along the lake, Plirynocepha- 

 lus olivieri, Diom. These animals associate together in pairs, as I usu- 

 ally took a male and female near each other, often under the same 

 stone, under which when alarmed they would rush. They also form 

 regular burrows in the ground, either under bushes or in the open 

 plain, to a depth of 8 inches or a foot, according to the nature of the 

 soil. The most curious point connected with these lizards is, that 



