In the winter heavy falls of snow are common, and when the wind drifts it, the smaller houses are sometimes covered. After a fall of snow, hazara and other labourers are called in with their wooden shovels to clear it off the roofs, as it would otherwise melt when the sun came out, and, percolating the mud covering, make the rooms below uninhabitable, and the added weight of snow is often the cause of a roof falling in. The snow is shovelled off the roofs into the streets below, where it piles up and takes months to melt, and keeps the roadway near by in a muddy condition; but the Afghan cares nothing for a little extra mud or dirt, and no one takes the trouble to clear away snow which will melt away itself in time—that would indeed be wasted labour. Latterly, arrangements have been made for carting it away from the principal thoroughfares, and in time the people may see the advantage of clearing all thoroughfares alike. When the summer is dry, dust storms are of almost daily occurrence, and are very unpleasant when one is out walking or riding, and in the house it is also unpleasant, for all doors and windows have to be kept shut, and the rooms become very hot, and everything one touches has a gritty feel. In hot weather the air is usually still until about three in the afternoon, and then a wind rises, blowing from the north, and, coming in gusts and eddies downwards, lifts up columns of dust so effectively that in a short time it is difficult to see, and this wind continues to increase in violence until about an hour after sundown, when it gradually dies away, and then, in the stillness that follows, the noises of the night sound very loud. The winter of 1901-02 was an exceptional one, for no snow fell the whole of the winter. I was told of a similar winter about twelve years before, which had been followed by cholera, and in this case history repeated itself, for in the spring the rivers and streams from the mountains dried up, the crops failed for want of water, and famine set in, and in the summer following, when food was scarcest, cholera broke out and raged for three months, and owing to the impoverished bodies of the people, the mortality was exceptionally high.