14. A light canvas box, fitted as a dressing-case.
Ours were made, according to our own wishes and possessions, by Williams, of 41 Bond Street. The innumerable glass bottles, so highly prized by the makers of dressing-cases, should be strictly limited in number. They are exceedingly heavy, and, as the dressing-case should be carried by its owner, the less it weighs the more he (or she) will esteem it.
15. A set of aluminium cooking-utensils is much to be recommended. They can easily be sold on leaving Kashmir for, at least, their cost price.
16. Pocket flask. This may be of aluminium also, although personally I dislike a metal flask.
17. Umbrella—strong, but cheap, as it is sure to be lost or stolen. There are few things your native loves more than a nice umbrella, unless it be
18. A knife fitted with corkscrew and screwdriver; therefore take two, and try to keep one carefully locked up.
19. Pair of good field-glasses.
I took a stalking telescope, but it was useless to my shikari, who always borrowed my wife’s binoculars until she lost them—or he stole them!
20. Hats. It is obviously a matter of taste what hats a man should take. The glossy silk may repose with the frock-coat till its owner returns to find it hopelessly out of date, its brim being a thought too curly, or its top impossibly wide; but the “bowler” or Homburg hat will serve his turn according to his fancy, until, at Aden, he invests in a hideous, but shady “topee,” for one-third of the price he would pay in London; and this will be his only wear, before sunset, until he again reaches a temperate climate. Ladies, who are rightly more particular as to the appearance of even so unlovely a thing as a sola topee, would do well, perhaps, to buy theirs before starting. Really becoming pith helmets seem very scarce in the East!
After sunset, or under awnings, any sort of cap may be worn.