reatment to which he was subjected by his then rulers the Pathans,
observing that Afghans usually addressed Kashmiris by striking them with a
hatchet, but, he concludes, "I even judged them worthy of their adverse
fortune."

Elphinstone (1839) is of opinion that "the men are excessively addicted to
pleasure, and are notorious all over the East for falsehood and cunning;"
and again, "The Cashmerians are of no account as soldiers."

"Many fowls in a yard defile it, and many Kashmiri in a country ruin it,"
says the proverb. Lawrence goes very fully into the Kashmiri character,
and dwells upon its few good points, giving him credit for great artistic
feeling, quick wit, ready repartee, and freedom from crime against the
person. He considers the last merit, though, to be due to cowardice and
the state of espionage which exists in every village!

I was told (but perhaps by a prejudiced person) of a Kashmiri who, during
the great flood of 1903, he being safely on the shore, saw his brother
being swept down the boiling river, clinging to his rapidly disintegrating
roof. The following painful conversation ensued:--

"Whither sailest thou, oh brother, perched upon the birch bark of thine
ancestral roof?"

"Ah! brother dear. Save me quick! I drown!"

"Truly that can I; but say, what recompense wilt thou give me?"

"All I have in the world, brother--two lovely rupees."

"Tut, tut, little one; thou takest me for a fool. Two rupees, forsooth,
for five perchance I will deign to save thy worthless life."

"Three, then, three, carissimo--'tis all I have--and make haste, for I
feel my timbers parting, and I know not how to swim."

"Farewell, oh, dearest brother! I could not possibly think of taking so
much trouble for three rupees, especially as, now I come to think of it, I
can borrow a singhara pole, and, in due time, will prod for thy corpse in
the Wular! Mind thou wrappest the lucre snugly in thy cummerbund, that it
be not lost--farewell, little brother!"

While the gentlemen of the Happy Valley have been lashed by the tongue and
pen of every traveller, the ladies, on the contrary, have been rather
overrated.

In all communities where the men are invertebrate the women become the
real heads of the family, doing not only most of the actual work, but also
taking the dominant position in affairs generally. This I have observed
strikingly in the case of the three "slackest" male races I know--the
Fantis of the Gold Coast, th