Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II VISIT TO PAYECH It was on the stroke of six next morning when, taking with me the English saddle I had hired in Srinagar, I rowed over to the other side of the river where, in a ploughed field, a pony and man were waiting. As some years had passed since I had been on a horse, and at the best had never been a good rider, it was with distinct nervousness that I looked forward to this first experience on an untrained country pony. However one glance at the poor little rat awaiting me dispelled all fears for myself, though it made me full of compassion for the little animal I was to mount. He was white, very ugly and bony, his grey glassy eyes had a watery pink setting ; his nose was molded grey and white, and gave none of that irresistible desire to pat it which a soft, velvety, horse's nose usually inspires. He pulled and jibbed violently when being saddled, and here a fewdifficulties presented themselves. Firstly, neither the two men nor myself knew any thing about saddling a horse ; and, secondly, the girths had been designed for a good sized English animal and went nearly twice round this creature, who was not much bigger than a donkey. It was the resourcefulness of the boatman which overcame this difficulty by hitching a knot into the straps, which reduced their length considerably, but other puzzles remained to confront us. The saddle had been sent short of one girth, and also one of the straps to keep the flap in position was missing ; this we cheerfully decided was of minor importance, so left its fellow to hang down gracefully alone ; a third odd strap confused us very much and we pushed it through one of the many buckles which studded the saddle, apparently without any definite purpose ; it kept in position and, as far as I was able to judge, did no harm, b... --This text refers to the Paperback edition.