The romantic East: Burma, Assam, & Kashmir - Khamkoo

158 THE ROMANTIC EAST
to bay. A score of dirty hands thrust greasy
cards in our faces, double that number of voices
invited us to visit as many shops,
each "the best
in Kashmir," and those who stood nearest whispered
in our ear that the rest were all thieves and
swindlers.
That the Kashmiris are
persistent, voluble, and
quick-witted is easy to discover ; that they are a
dirty, cringing, spiritless lot is easy to see ;
and
that they are untruthful and dishonest is easy to
believe. If the Kashmiri merchants enjoy the
reputation of being the most unconscionable rogues,
it is
mainly their own fault, and every merchant in
Srinagar is ready to admit that, with one exception,
they are all even worse than reputed.
As a matter of fact, the Kashmiris do carry
their swindling a point beyond our experience of
any other land, for in all our travels we never
found another country where the post office is
used for the issue of false coin. At the Baramula
post office on the way up two bad rupees were
given in the change for a sovereign, and at Srinagar
one bad rupee. The one received at the latter
place is kept as a souvenir, the two received at