to work for a fair payment, when required to do
so by his Government, as exercised by the local Tehsildhar.

The demand made upon a village for coolies is not, therefore, an arbitrary
and high-handed system of bullying, but simply a call upon the villages to
fulfil their obligation towards the State by doing a fair day's work for a
fair day's pay of from four to six annas.

I do not, of course, propose to entangle myself in the working of the Land
Settlement, which is most fully and admirably explained in Lawrence's
_Valley of Kashmir_.

The coolie, drawn from his native village reluctant, like a periwinkle
from its shell, is never a good starter, and when he finds himself at the
end of a tow-rope or bowed beneath half a hundredweight of the sahib's
trinkets, with a three-thousand-feet pass to attain in front of him, he is
extremely apt to burst into tears--idle tears--or be overcome by a fit of
that fell disease--"the lurgies." Lest my reader should not be acquainted
with this illness, at least under that name, here is the diagnosis of the
lurgies as given by a very ordinary seaman to the ship's doctor.

"Well, sir, I eats well, and I sleeps well; but when I've got a job of
work to do--Lor' bless you, sir! I breaks out all over of a tremble!"

CHAPTER X

THE LIDAR VALLEY

We were glad enough to leave Srinagar, as that place has been undoubtedly
trying lately, being extremely hot and relaxing. The river, which had been
up to the fourteen-foot level, as shown on the gate ports at the entrance
to the Sunt-i-kul Canal, had fallen to 9-1/2 feet, and the mud, exposed
both on its banks and in the fields and flats which had been flooded, must
have given out unwholesome exhalations, of which the riverine population,
the dwellers in house-boats and doungas, got the full benefit.

Jane has certainly been anything but well lately, and I confess to a
certain feeling best described as "slack and livery."

We had not intended to remain nearly so long in Srinagar, but the
continuity of the chain of entertainments proved too firm to break, and
dances and dinners, bridge and golf, kept us bound from day to day, until
the _fete_ at the Residency on the 15th practically brought the Srinagar
season to a close, and broke up the line of house-boats that had been
moored along both banks of the river.

We had arranged to start with a party of three other boats up the river,
visiting Atchibal with our friends, and then going up t