It is a sound thing to go round one’s sleeping-cabin at night before “turning in,” and make a bag of all that can be found “dreaming the happy hours away” on the bulkheads and ceiling. It sends us to bed in the virtuous frame of mind of the Village Blacksmith—
“Something attempted, something done,
Has earned a night’s repose”
There are other microbes besides flies in Kashmir which are exasperating—coolies, for instance.
I had engaged men through Chattar Singh (the State Transport factotum at Srinagar) to take us up the river, and decreed that we should start at 4 A.M. yesterday.
We had been to an al fresco gathering at the Residency the night before, and so were rather sleepy in the early morning, and I did not wake at four o’clock. At six we had not got far on our way, and at ten we were but level with Pandrettan, barely three miles from Srinagar as the crow (that model of rectilinear volition) flies.
I was busy painting all the forenoon, and failed to note the sluggish steps of our coolies, but in the afternoon it was borne in upon us that if we wanted to reach Avantipura that night, as we had arranged, a little acceleration was necessary.
Then the trouble began. The coolies were bone-lazy, the admiral and first-lieutenant were sulky, and the weather was stuffy and threatened thunder—the conditions were altogether detrimental to placidity of temper.
By sunset we had the shikari, the kitchen-maid, and the sweeper on the tow-rope, and even the great and good Sabz Ali was seen to bear a hand in poling. Much recrimination now ensued between Sabz Ali and the Admiral, and the whole crowd made the air resound with Kashmiri “language,” every one, apparently, abusing everybody else, and making very nasty remarks about their lady ancestors.
At 10 P.M. I got four more coolies from a village, apparently chiefly inhabited by dogs, who deeply resented our proximity, and at 2 o’clock this morning we reached the haven where we would be—Avantipura.
This morning I discharged the Srinagar coolies and took a fresh lot, who pull better and talk less.