A Record Of Buddhistic Kingdoms - Diary Of A Pedestrian In Cashmere And Thibet By William Henry Knight




























































 -  Considering that our entertainer was a Hindoo, and
that his dinner-giving appliances were limited, each person having
to bring - Page 37
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Considering That Our Entertainer Was A Hindoo, And That His Dinner-Giving Appliances Were Limited, Each Person Having To Bring

His own knife, fork, spoon, and chair, we fared very well, and after having drunk his health, again assembled in

The court, where we found Rumbeer Singh still occupied with the wearisome nach, and reattired in a gorgeous dress of green velvet and gold. After a short stay he got up, and we all followed his example, glad enough to bring the entertainment to an end, and betake ourselves to our boats. At the stairs there was a desperate encounter with innumerable boatmen, each boat having six, eight, or ten sailors, and all being equally anxious to uphold the credit of their craft by being the first to land their masters safe, at home. We were fortunate enough to reach our own at once, and, with a shouting crew, away we dashed up the river, leaving the others struggling, fighting, and flourishing their paddles in the air, in a way which was more suggestive of an insurrection scene in Masaniello than the departure of guests from a peaceable gentleman's own hall door on the night of an evening party.

On the stairs there was an extraordinary assemblage of slippers, which seemed to hold the same relative position that hats and cloaks do in more enlightened communities - that is, the good ones were taken by the owners of the bad, and the proprietors of the bad ones were fain to make the best of the exchange. Next morning our khidmutgar came up with a most doleful countenance and presented to our notice a pair of certainly most ill-favoured slippers, which a fellow true-believer had INADVERTENTLY substituted for a pair of later date. The lost ones had, in fact, only recently been received from the boot-maker; and the blow was difficult to bear with resignation, even by the saintliest follower of Islam - a reputation which our retainer came short of by a very long way indeed.

JULY 4. - Having an accumulation of letters to answer, we devoted the day to writing - merely enjoying a little OTIUM CUM DIG. - in the evening, reclining in our boat while serenaded by the crew of boatmen.

JULY 5. - Walked up, before daybreak, to the Tukht e Suleeman, or Solomon's throne, "the mountainous Portal," which Moore speaks of in LALLA ROOKH, and which forms the most striking landmark in the valley.[8]

From the summit there was a curious view of the multitudinous wooden houses and the sinuous windings of the river, which could alone be obtained from such a bird's-eye point of inspection. An old temple at the top was in the hands of the Hindoo faction, being dedicated to the goddess Mahadewee, and in charge of it I found two of the dirtiest fukeers, or religious mendicants, I ever had the pleasure of meeting. One was lying asleep, with his feet in a heap of dust and ashes, and the other was listlessly sitting, without moving a muscle, warming himself in the morning sun.

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