s inhabitants are--and apparently have always been--a poor lot.

Shopping in Srinagar is not pure and unadulterated joy. Down the river,
spanned by its seven bridges, amidst a network of foul-smelling alleys,
you are dragged to the emporiums of the native merchants whose
advertisements flare upon the river banks, and who, armed with cards, and
possessed of a wonderful supply of the English language, swarm around the
victim at every landing-place, and almost tear one another in pieces while
striving to obtain your custom.

Samad Shall, in a conspicuous hoarding, announces that he can--and
will--supply you with anything you may desire, including money--for he
proclaims himself to be a banker.

Ganymede, in his own opinion, is the only wood-carver worth attention.

Suffering Moses is the prince of workers in lacquer, according to his own
showing.

The nose of the boat grates up against the slimy step of the landing-place,
and you plunge forthwith into Babel.

"Will you come to my shop?"

"No--you are going somewhere else."

"After?"

"Perhaps!"

"To-day, master?"

"No--no time to-day."

"To-morrow, then--I got very naice kyriasity [curiosity]--to-morrow,
master--what time?"

"Oh! get out! and leave me alone."

"I send boat for you--ten o'clock to-morrow?"

"No."

"Twelve o'clock?" &c. &c.

After a short experience of Kashmiri pertinacity and business methods, you
cease from politeness and curtly threaten the river.

Certainly the Kashmiri are exceedingly clever and excellent workers in
many ways. Their modern embroideries (the old shawl manufacture is totally
extinct) are beautiful and artistic. Their wood-carving, almost always
executed in rich brown walnut, is excellent; and their _old_ papier-mache
lacquer is very good. The tendency, however, is unfortunately to abandon
their own admirable designs, and assimilate or copy Western ideas as
conveyed in very doubtful taste by English visitors.

The embroidery has perhaps kept its individuality the best, although the
trail of the serpent as revealed in "quaint" Liberty or South Kensington
designs is sometimes only too apparent. Certain plants--Lotus, Iris,
Chenar leaf, and so-called Dal Lake leaves, as well as various designs
taken from the old Kashmir shawls, give scope to the nimble brains and
fingers of the embroiderers, who, by-the-bye, are all male.

Their colours, almost invariably obtained from native dyes, are excellent,
and they rarely mak