A PILGRIMAGE TO AMERNATH 



52' 



Photograph by William Jessop 



A KASHMIR WOMAN POUNDING RICE 



Throughout the East, wherever rice is eaten, one is never far from some type of mortar 

 and pestle. These women wear the pheran of grayish wool (see text, page 531) and the 

 boatman's daughter has added woolen pigtails to her own dark tresses. 



two boxes of tinned stuff, three tents for 

 ourselves and two for the servants, a 

 leather - covered basket with enamel 

 dishes, a collapsible table and two chairs, 

 besides numerous small articles. 



A NUMEROUS RETINUE 



One coolie carried the cameras and an- 

 other our tiffin basket. Everything else 

 went on the ponies' backs, and a consid- 

 erable amount of time and breath it took 

 to adjust loads, for each syce (groom) 

 tried to shift the undesirable portions to 

 the other syce's pony. Besides, what did 

 it matter to them when we started ! Time 

 is of no account in this country, as a 

 guard once told me on one of the trains, 

 and I am sure it isn't — to the native. 



When preparations were under way we 

 heard sounds of mourning from the re- 

 gion of the cook-boat, and upon investi- 

 gation learned that one of the women 

 was weeping and wailing because her 

 husband had not been chosen to go on the 

 trip. The Kashmiri is very emotional, 

 and even men crv like children when dis- 



appointed or when they wish to arouse 

 the sympathies of the hard-hearted for- 

 eigner. 



At last our cavalcade was ready and 

 we set our faces toward Amernath, the 

 goal of our desire. The ladies led off on 

 their ponies, each with a syce at its head. 

 The men followed on foot with the cam- 

 era and tiffin coolies, while behind, in 

 Rahim's charge, came the eight pack 

 ponies with their syces, our servant, the 

 bhisti (water-carrier), and mehtar (chore 

 boy), the lowest servant of all. 



Westerners will wonder at the num- 

 bers required in a simple camping trip ; 

 but the East isn't the West. Xo man 

 here will look after another's horse, nor 

 will the bhisti do the 111 eh tar's work, and 

 the cook will do the work of neither. 

 The sahib and mem-sahib lose caste and 

 the respect of all classes if they do any- 

 thing for themselves, and so it goes. Be- 

 sides, the labor problem is not so serious 

 when a riding pony, saddle, and syce cost 

 only a rupee a day and a pack pony with 

 his care-taker one-half as much. 



