to the hills that are the first ramp of the ascent to the great
heights. We found the damp corners where the mushrooms grow like
pearls - the mushrooms of which she said - "To me they have
always been fairy things. To see them in the silver-grey dew of
the early mornings - mysteriously there like the manna in the
desert - they are elfin plunder, and as a child I was half afraid
of them. No wonder they are the darlings of folklore, especially
in Celtic countries where the Little People move in the
starlight. Strange to think they are here too among strange
gods!"

We climbed to where the wild peonies bloom in glory that few eyes
see, and the rosy beds of wild sweet strawberries ripen. Every
hour brought with it some new delight, some exquisiteness of
sight or of words that I shall remember for ever. She sat one day
on a rock, holding the sculptured leaves and massive seed-vessels
of some glorious plant that the Kashmiris believe has magic
virtues hidden in the seeds of pure rose embedded in the white
down.

"If you fast for three days and eat nine of these in the Night of
No Moon, you can rise on the air light as thistledown and stand
on the peak of Haramoukh. And on Haramoukh, as you know it is
believed, the gods dwell. There was a man here who tried this
enchantment. He was a changed man for ever after, wandering and
muttering to himself and avoiding all human intercourse as far as
he could. He was no Kashmiri - A Jat from the Punjab, and they
showed him to me when I was here with the Meryons, and told me he
would speak to none. But I knew he would speak to me, and he
did."