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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZIN 



Photograph by Maynard Owen Williams 



A FRUIT-SELLER OF RAWALPINDI 



Not only is Rawalpindi the Main Street showroom for Kashmir shawls ; hither also 

 come the rosy-cheeked apples of the enchanted vale, the finest available in a land of many 

 fruits. 



ists don't dream of pig iron. Rich car- 

 goes spell romance. And the camel, ugly 

 drudge that he is, excludes cheap freight 

 as easily as a white-stockinged footman 

 excludes the proletariat. Say Kashmir 

 shawls and the gold brocades of Benares 

 and the camel will prick up his mouse 

 ears and even take a reef in his pendent 

 under lip ; but don't mention rice or cot- 

 ton in his hearing. His leisurely legs 

 protect his hump from vulgar burdens. 

 If India had trusted in him, Manchester 



prints and cheap German and Japanese 

 manufactures would never have flooded 

 the land. 



Oh, moth-eaten mesmerist, ugly as a 

 snag-toothed Atropos, evil-tempered as a 

 jinni, high - headed disdainer of your 

 betters, you conjure up a rippling curtain 

 of lustrous silks to hide the eternal trag- 

 edy of a hungry land. With India's mil- 

 lions famished for unseasoned rice, you 

 make us dream of rarest spices. With 

 subtle prevarication you depict Golconda 



