He has in no degree come to comprehend the dignity of labour any more than
a Poplar pauper comprehends it, but fortunately his Guardians, while
granting certain advantages in his tenure of land and payment of rent,
have bound him, in return, to work for a fair payment, when required to do
so by his Government, as exercised by the local Tehsildhar.
The demand made upon a village for coolies is not, therefore, an arbitrary
and high-handed system of bullying, but simply a call upon the villages to
fulfil their obligation towards the State by doing a fair day's work for a
fair day's pay of from four to six annas.
I do not, of course, propose to entangle myself in the working of the Land
Settlement, which is most fully and admirably explained in Lawrence's
_Valley of Kashmir_.
The coolie, drawn from his native village reluctant, like a periwinkle
from its shell, is never a good starter, and when he finds himself at the
end of a tow-rope or bowed beneath half a hundredweight of the sahib's
trinkets, with a three-thousand-feet pass to attain in front of him, he is
extremely apt to burst into tears--idle tears--or be overcome by a fit of
that fell disease--"the lurgies." Lest my reader should not be acquainted
with this illness, at least under that name, here is the diagnosis of the
lurgies as given by a very ordinary seaman to the ship's doctor.
"Well, sir, I eats well, and I sleeps well; but when I've got a job of
work to do--Lor' bless you, sir! I breaks out all over of a tremble!"
CHAPTER X
THE LIDAR VALLEY
We were glad enough to leave Srinagar, as that place has been undoubtedly
trying lately, being extremely hot and relaxing.
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