In the morning a miserable, forlorn-looking object arrived with a lantern in his hand. This poor wretch sat down and wept! To my dismay, I recognised my bearer. This draggled-looking object was generally a most consequential little man--of very high caste, and so honest that he could be trusted with any amount of money, and not a farthing would be purloined by him. My two bullock-trunks and a lantern he considered his special charge, and often afterwards, high up in the mountains of Cashmere, this little man might have been seen, with the lantern in one hand, and laden with his copper cooking-pots, which no one was of high enough caste to carry except himself. He had passed a night of misery; in dread that the thieves would rob the ‘Sahib’s’ things. He was also in deadly fear that bears would demolish himself, and in terror lest evil spirits of the mountains might carry him away to some far off Gehenna; and--what in reality was the greatest trial of all--he was starving. Once a day this high-caste Hindoo would approach me with clasped hands, and exclaim, in Hindostanee, ‘Provider of the poor, may I go and eat bread?’ And then he would disappear, and for two hours was occupied cooking and eating his rice, which was a religious function altogether. When pressed with work, he would not eat at all till his labour was over. This was a most trying event. He had been so occupied packing at Murree that he had postponed his hour of cooking till arrival at Deywal, and then the ‘budmashes,’ the brigands of coolies, had deserted him, and he was left all night starving among the bears and the evil spirits! This was enough to account for his misery, so I told him to go to his ‘rhoti khana;’ and he returned two hours after, the bright and active factotum he always was. As the morning advanced, our baggage arrived. All the stray mules of Deywal were sent out, and in time brought in everything. CHAPTER VIII. CASHMERE. MARCH TO KOHALLA--CROSSING THE JHELLUM--ACCIDENT TO A BOAT--ASCENT OF THE DUNNA PASS--BARRADURRIES, OR REFUGES--TOMB OF A YOUNG CAVALRY OFFICER--SUDDEN STORM--CHICKAR--THE DOCTOR--AN EARLY START--WONDERFUL TOMASHA WALLA--BACKSHEESH--THE PEOPLE OF CASHMERE--HEAVY TAXATION--TREATY. CHAPTER VIII. Our next march was to Kohalla on the banks of the Jhellum. It is a pleasant ride down to the valley, and then through flowering shrubs and green fir-trees, and past high rocks till we arrived at the comfortable hotel, situated near the river. Across that foaming mass of troubled waters we had to pass, and then we should be in Cashmere; for the Jhellum divides the territory of the Maharajah from that of Great Britain.