Evening star., 1903-07-04

with all their strength, the wind rushed
under the roof and lifted II a moment to
| our horror. but our united weights--hang-
Ing to the pole support, held IL down.
heaven be thanked. and we made the mile
after vain struggles and much terror on
all our parts and had dinner amidst the
noise of the rattling and banging of every
loose article in either beat Since that
time we have had no trouble in keeping
near the dinner boat 1 really think we
were In good deal OF danger and were
very fortunate to come out OF IL as We did.
The ,Kashmiri Roll.
We moored near a village that evening
| until after dinner and were greatly inter-
| ested in the cries of the different native
tradesmen along the banks. one OF whom,
a vendor of bread. called out in lovely
minor tones "Bakatu, Bakatu, Bakatur'
which Ahhadu told us meant ''rolls'' in
kashmiri. AS we go further down the
river we find all the fruit trees in flower
and the air is filled with fragrance. We
have chots hazri at 7:30 usual. brought
to Us, II we have already made a start on
a small Embellishments at $50 get up
and have our baths. the water having been
stored at the last village in huge earthen
jars, the river water is far too dirty to
use. We dressed by breakfast time,
$50, and while dressing the deck and sit
ting room are washed down. the rugs beat
the mating curtains rolled up and the
vases filled with flowers, IL We are not
under way At $50 out boat is poled up
beside the dinner boat ana fastened until
We have breakfast. We keep to the boat
pretty much during the day. but after tea
at We usually have the dunga stopped
while we get off and walk along the path
for several miles. The country is fiat and
we are encirced by high snow mountains
and the air is full of fragrance and the
valley a mass of purple and white bloom
from the great beds of iris which have
burst suddenly into flower. The mongoose
follows in walks without his har-
ness, and is a continual delight to us He
shifts every hole and often lags behind to
dig for small frogs which cover themselves
with earth, or to unearth horrible insects
and devour them. Ahhadu, who has con-
ceived a great idea of our Importance. COM
pels all the boatmen and people meet
pass to salaam respectfully and treats
them with great severity If they omit that
courtesy. and he also tries to make the
coolies, employed in dragging the other
boats (big house boats) restrain their over
powering desire to yell last messages when
out of hearing of any, but those
terribly y-Shrill two-edged voices. the most
strident and irritating in the world. call
them. Our boatmen seem to have less of
that shrill quality in their voices. and prob
ably owing to our repeated admonitions,
shrek less often than the dreadful cool
les.
Bird Escorts
river by pair OF bulbuls. and told
that it is so with all the dungas. as the
natives feed the birds and make great pets
of them. They fly into the rooms. build
nests urder the roof and are busy and
chirrupy all day. Although they are sup
posed to be a nightingale. they have no
song, only q few trilIing notes. but they
are very attractive little creatures. One
morning were disturbed by long. dread
ful walls and sobs seemingly from our
cook boat, though we could not believe that
il could come from therei Finally IL got
too agonizing and unbearably loud. and we
sent back at once to see If IL really did
come from our boat, which we always had
moored sCme distance back. on account Of
the continuous chatter proceeding from IL.
Our bearer returned in few moments and
informed in expressionless tones that it
only Ahhadu beating his younger
brother We were Mortified, but could
hardly help laughing, and as the walls
contiued sent back commands that the
noise should stop instantly, which ii did,
and we hoped the beating also. for Sidka
is our favCrite of all the crew, an Innocent
faced boy of ten or eleven, who brings us
flowers and spends hours catching fish for
the mongOose. tiny fish, which that little
fiend plays with for time before eating
them up Sdika corrects gently our mis-
takes in Hndostanee, and plays happily
with the mongoose, who treats him with
tolerance. and gives him great deal OF
trouble by hiding and jumping out at him
or rushing madly up a tree and jumping
down at him. Our last afternoon spent
at the town of Bijbehara. where the Ma
harajah has a lovely place. The palace is
very commonplace except for the beauti-
fully carved windows. but the grounds full
of huge chinar. or plane, trees are ideally
lovely, The trees are as big around the
smaller ones among the big Trees OF
California, but spreading. of course. and
usually hollow. Grass grows under
them, and. all the fruit trees We're in
bloom and the grass strewed with the pale
purple dwarf iris, 1t was bower indeed!
We took Sidika and the mongoose and
wandered about among the wonderful
trees, and that fiend of animal crawled
into hole in one of the chinars and re-
fused to come out. He stuck out his tiny
head at times to If We were there, but
nothing could persuade him to leave his
tree. At last it came time to start and we
were at wits ends to what to do
until the stately bearer appeared and sug-
gested throwing a cup OF water into the
hole, which we accordingly had done. and
a wet and disheveled mongoose appeared
at once and made post haste for the dunga
amid shouts of laughter from his heartess
friends At / o'clock on the fourth day
moored under the trees at Kasbal. the
port for Islamabad, the second town in i'm
portance in kashmir, and ended our first
voyage in dunga.
MARGARET STIRLING.