be procured at a price varying from a hundred to a hundred and fifty rupis. Particular care should be taken in its selection. An inferior animal for the servants will cost from forty to sixty rupis.
Different opinions exist with reference to the shoeing of horses. It is often maintained, that a horse once shod is no longer sure-footed—one of the most necessary and essential qualities of a horse to be used in the mountains. This assertion is quite true for cases in which shoes are applied to horses according to the European fashion ; but a horse with thin and properly fitting shoes is not only as sure-footed as one without, but will prove more serviceable over stony and rocky ground. The traveller does best to accommodate himself to the custom of the province through which he is passing. Horses are scarcely ever shod in Kämâon and Gärhvâl, so that the animal is likely to be ruined there, from this operation being unskilfully performed by inexpert natives (nalbânds); whilst in Turkistan the people are all in the habit of shoeing their horses, a manipulation which they perform very dexterously ; most of the Turkistanis have even a slight knowledge of the veterinary art. Each caravan carries with it the instruments required, and the men are thus enabled to shoe any of the horses whenever it may be found necessary.
The mode in which the saddle and the luggage are put on the horse's back is very important. Pads (namdas) made of felt or wool (to each side of which pockets may be attached for carrying weapons or any other articles) are very essential to keep the back from being chafed : but on longer and protracted marches, in spite of all precautions, a great number of the animals will become so sore in the back as to be altogether unfit for service.
To ladies, or to invalids unable to ride, a dândi is to be recommended, in which, if carried by trained men, they can be brought up very bad and rough ground, and even over some of the more frequented passes. In cases of short temporary illness a dândi may occasionally be very useful. Any strong pole, with a cloth sufficiently large, elliptically folded, and solidly attached to it in a longitudinal form, may at once be converted into a dândi.
Jhcimpans, or carrying-chairs, can only be used on better roads, chiefly in the outer parts of the Himalaya; but travelling is not very agreeable either in a jhâmpan or in a dândi.
IIIFカラー高解像度
