WORK AND SPORT IN THE N.W-P. 59 
houses stood a gesticulating crowd of men, women, 
and children, helplessly awaiting their fate. This 
mighty rock, first sliding, then bounding, passed 
with a roar of thunder down a ravine to one side of 
the village, to come to rest in the bed of the river ; 
so huge was it that for a few seconds the waters 
were dammed up, and then, accumulating, passed 
over the obstacle. We retreated after two days’ 
clear weather, to find roads and bridges swept away, 
and had to ford the streams in companies of six to 
ten men, with arms interlaced over each other’s 
shoulders. The country-side was full of stories of 
disaster, from which recovery was long. 
In this part of the world the stalwart women were 
a valuable asset in the homestead, and gave great 
assistance in the fields. They commanded prices up 
to £30 or £40, paid not so much in cash to the 
parents as in rough jewellery to the bride, and 
domestic tragedies were not infrequent. On one 
occasion the newly-married wife of a Forest Guard 
committed suicide by leaping to instant death in the 
Bhagarathi River, for the rapid stream rolls huge 
boulders along its bed, and grinds to powder every- 
thing that cannot float lightly on the surface. To 
the new-comer the unseen passing of these rocks, with 
the gradually increasing rumble and tremor, is 
strangely reminiscent of the sound and feeling of the 
frequent earth-movement in the Garo Hills of Assam ; 
in each case habit brings indifference. The husband 
on this occasion asked for ten days’ leave, as he 
wished to examine the river-banks for some distance 
below, in the hope of recovering some of the jewellery 
that had purchased his wife, but failed to buy her 
