afootthroughkash00douguoft

KASHMIR VALLEYS 3
unfriendly adjectives huried at Koehwan, Babu, the
rain, things in general, and the third passenger got in
beside me. Blessed man, he had a rug and no pets,
so the former was shared, bundles adjusted, ponies
violently castigated, and after fierce jerks and many
efforts we were actually off moving through space
apparently, for the darkness was so great not the
slightest outline of passing objects could be seen.
The road was encumbered with many country carts
and flocks ; so I gathered from the hoarse shoutings and
sleepy answers that arrived through the outside gloom,
usually preceding much jolting and banging, in the
course of which I and my partner nearly succeeded in
changing places like tennis balls. We slept uneasily
at intervals, with a strange impression of being the
victims of gnomes who hustled and bullied their prey,
as with wheels lifted high over casual boulders, or
dragged through rocky "nullahs," we received the
elbows of our neighbours in our side, or were hurtled by
moving baggage.
Crash! this time something really had happened,
shoutings rent the darkness, and cracks and the
snappings of shafts could be heard. We were soon wide
awake, and taking part in the general difference of
opinion that seemed to prevail. Fortunately we were
only spectators of the smash. The tonga carrying
the mails had attempted to pass between the culvert
of a bridge and a country cart, with the result that
when we appeared, having in the general obscurity
driven into the debris, the bridge was carpeted with
mail bags, two " ekkas " were lying in drunken fashion
prone on the ground, and darkness itself was riven by
the remarks of the principals, to which the mutterings