130 The Abode of Snow. r

that the July sun beat upon the slate, so that every
breath from the rock was sickening. Beneath there were
dark jagged precipices and an almost sunless torrent—
so deeply is the Sutlej here sunk in its gorge—foam-
ing along at the rate of about twenty miles an. hour;
above there were frowning precipices and a cloudless
sky, across which some eagle or huge raven-like Hima-
layan crow occasionally flitted.

, I saw this footpath in an exceptionally bad state—
for it is only used in winter when the higher roads are
impassable from snow; and after all the damage of
winter and spring it is not repaired until the beginning
of winter. But no repairing, short of blasting out gal-
leries in the face of the rock, could make much improve-
ment in it. It was not, however, the danger of this path
which made it frightful to me ; that only made it inter-
esting, and served as a stimulus. The mischief was that,
in my disabled and weak state, I had to exert myself
almost continuously on it for twelve hours in a burning
sun. The Sugnam men did all in their power to assist
me, and I could not but admire, and be deeply grateful
for, their patience and kindness. But the longest day
has an end, as Damiens said when he was taken out to
be tortured ; and we reached Pu at last, my bearers, as
they approached it, sending up sounds not unlike the
Swiss jodel, which were replied to in similar fashion by
their companions who had reached the place before
them. Pu is a large village, situated about a thousand
feet above the bed of the Sutlej, on the slope of a high,
steep mountain. I found that my tent had been pitched
on a long terraced field, well shaded with apricot-trees,
on the outskirts of the village, and that Mr Pagell, the
Moravian missionary, was absent on a long journey he
was making in Spiti. Mrs Pagell, it^appeared, was liv-
ing with some .native Christians near by, in a house