by Ruskin Bond
"Where are you going?" he asked, unable to suppress his curiosity.
"To the glacier," said Kamal.
"Let me come with you," said the boy. "I know the way."
"You're too small," said Anil. "We need someone who can carry our bedding-roll."
"I'm small," said the boy, "but I'm strong. I'm not a weakling like the boys in the plains." Though he was shorter than any of us, he certainly looked sturdy, and had a muscular well-knit body and pink cheeks. "See!" he said; and picking up a rock the size of a football, he heaved it across the stream.
"I think he can come with us," I said.
And the boy, whose name was Bisnu, dashed off to inform his people of his employment—we had agreed to pay him a rupee a day for acting as our guide and 'sherpa'.
And then we were walking—at first, above the little Sarayu river, then climbing higher along the rough mule-track, always within sound of the water. Kamal wanted to bathe in the river. I said it was too far, and Anil said we wouldn't reach the dak bungalow before dark if we went for a swim. Regretfully, we left the river behind, and marched on through a forest of oaks, over wet, rotting leaves that made a soft carpet for our feet. We ate at noon, under an oak. As we didn't want to waste any time making a fire— not on this first crucial day—we ate beans from a tin and drank most of our water.
In the afternoon we came to the river again. The water was swifter now, green and bubbling, still far below us. We saw two boys in the water, swimming in an inlet which reminded us of our own secret pool. They waved, and invited us to join them. We returned their greeting; but it would have taken us an hour to get down to the river and up again; so we continued on our way.
We walked fifteen miles on the first day—our speed was to decrease after this—and we were at the dak bungalow by six o'clock. Bisnu busied himself collecting sticks for a fire. Anil found the bungalow's watchman asleep in a patch of fading sunlight, and roused him. The watchman, who hadn't been bothered by visitors for weeks, grumbled at our intrusion, but opened a room for us. He also produced some potatoes from his quarters, and these were roasted for dinner.
It became cold after the sun had gone down, and we remained close to Bisnu's fire. The damp sticks burnt fitfully. But Bisnu had justified his inclusion in our party. He had balanced the bedding-roll on his shoulders as though it were full of cotton wool instead of blankets. Now he was helping with the cooking. And we were glad to have him sharing our hot potatoes and strong tea.
There were only two beds in the room, and we pushed these together, apportioning out the blankets as fairly as possible. Then the four of us leapt into bed, shivering in the cold. We were already over 5,000 feet. Bisnu, in his own peculiar way, had wrapped a scarf round his neck, though a cotton singlet and shorts were all that he wore for the night.
"Tell us a story, Rusty," said Anil. "It will help us to fall asleep."
I told them one of his mother's stories, about a boy and a girl who had been changed into a pair of buffaloes; and then Bisnu told us about the ghost of a Sadhu, who was to be seen sitting in the snow by moonlight, not far from the glacier. Far from putting us to sleep, this story kept us awake for hours.
"Aren't you asleep yet?" I asked Anil in the middle of the night.
"No, you keep kicking me," he lied.
"We don't have enough blankets," complained Kamal, "It's too cold to sleep."
"I never sleep till it's very late," mumbled Bisnu from the bottom of the bed.
No one was prepared to admit that our imaginations were keeping us awake.
After a little while we heard a thud on the corrugated tin sheeting, and then the sound of someone—or something—scrambling about on the roof Anil, Kamal and I sat up in bed, startled out of our wits. Bisnu, who had been winning the race to be fast asleep, merely turned over on his side and grunted.
"It's only a bear," he said. "Didn't you notice the pumpkins on the roof? Bears love pumpkins."
For half an hour we had to listen to the bear as it clambered about on the roof, feasting on the watchman's ripening pumpkins. Finally there was silence. Kamal and I crawled out of our blankets and went to the window. And through the frosted glass we saw a black Himalayan bear ambling across the slope in front of the bungalow, a fat pumpkin held between its paws.
4. To The River
It was raining when we woke, and the mountains were obscured by a heavy mist. We delayed our departure, playing football on the verandah with one of the pumpkins that had fallen off the roof. At noon the rain stopped, and the sun shone through the clouds. As the mist lifted, we saw the snow range, the great peaks of Nanda Kot and Trisul stepping into the sky.
"It's different up here," said Kamal. "I feel a different person."
"That's the altitude," I said. "As we go higher, we'll get lighter in the head."
"Anil is light in the head already," said Kamal. "I hope the altitude isn't too much for him."
"If you two are going to be witty," said Anil, "I shall go off with Bisnu, and you'll have to find the way yourselves."
Bisnu grinned at each of us in turn to show us that he wasn't taking sides; and after a breakfast of boiled eggs, we set off on our trek to the next bungalow.
Rain had made the ground slippery, and we were soon ankle-deep in slush. Our next bungalow lay in a narrow valley, on the banks of the rushing Pindar river, which twisted its way through the mountains. We were not sure how far we had to go, but nobody seemed in a hurry. On an impulse, I decided to hurry on ahead of the others. I wanted to be waiting for them at the river.
The path dropped steeply; then rose and went round a big mountain. I met a woodcutter and asked him how far it was to the river. He was a short, stocky man, with gnarled hands and a weathered face.
"Seven miles," he said. "Are you alone?"
"No, the others are following, but I cannot wait for them. If you meet them, tell them I'll be waiting at the river."
The path descended steeply now, and I had to run a little. It was a dizzy, winding path. The hillside was covered with lush green ferns, and, in the trees, unseen birds sang loudly. Soon I was in the valley, and the path straightened out. A girl was coming from the opposite direction. She held a long, curved knife, with which she had been cutting grass and fodder. There were rings in her nose and ears, and her arms were covered with heavy bangles. The bangles made music when she moved her hands—it was as though her hands spoke a language of their own.
"How far is it to the river?" I asked.
The girl had probably never been near the river, or she may have been thinking of another one, because she replied, "Twenty miles," without any hesitation.
I laughed, and ran down the path. A parrot screeched suddenly, flew low over my head—a flash of blue and green— and took the course of the path, while I followed its dipping flight, until the path rose and the bird disappeared into the trees.
A trickle of water came from the hillside, and I stopped to drink. The water was cold and sharp and very refreshing. I had walked alone for nearly an hour. Presently I saw a boy ahead of me, driving a few goats along the path.
"How far is it to the river?" I asked, when I caught up with him.
The boy said, "Oh, not far, just round the next hill."
As I was hungry, I produced some dry bread from my pocket and, breaking it in two, offered half to the boy. We sat on the grassy hillside and ate in silence. Then we walked on together and began talking; and talking, I did not notice the smarting of my feet and the distance I had covered. But after some time the boy had to diverge along another path, and I was once more on my own.
I missed the village boy. I looked up and down the path, but I could see no one, no sign of Anil and Kamal and Bisnu, and the river was not in sight either. I began to feel discouraged. But I couldn't turn back; I was determined to be at the river before the others.
And so I walked on, along the muddy path, past terraced fields and small stone houses, until there were no more fields and houses, only forest an
d sun and silence.
The silence was impressive and a little frightening. It was different from the silence of a room or an empty street. Nor was there any movement, except for the bending of grass beneath my feet, and the circling of a hawk high above the fir trees.
And then, as I rounded a sharp bend, the silence broke into sound.
The sound of the river.
Far down in the valley, the river tumbled over itself in its impatience to reach the plains. I began to run, slipped and stumbled, but continued running.
And the water was blue and white and wonderful.
When Anil, Kamal and Bisnu arrived, the four of us bravely decided to bathe in the little river. The late afternoon sun was still warm, but the water—so clear and inviting—proved to be ice-cold. Only twenty miles upstream the river emerged as a little trickle from the glacier, and in its swift descent down the mountain slopes it did not give the sun a chance to penetrate its waters. But we were determined to bathe, to wash away the dust and sweat of our two days' trudging, and we leapt about in the shallows like startled porpoises, slapping water on each other, and gasping with the shock of each immersion. Bisnu, more accustomed to mountain streams than ourselves, ventured across in an attempt to catch an otter, but wasn't fast enough. Then we were on the springy grass, wrestling each other in order to get warm.
The bungalow stood on a ledge just above the river, and the sound of the water rushing down the mountain defile could be heard at all times. The sound of the birds, which we had grown used to, was drowned by the sound of the water; but the birds themselves could be seen, many-coloured, standing out splendidly against the dark green forest foliage: the red-crowned jay, the paradise flycatcher, the purple whistling-thrush, others we could not recognise.
Higher up the mountain, above some terraced land where oats and barley were grown, stood a small cluster of huts. This, we were told by the watchman, was the last village on the way to the glacier. It was, in fact, one of the last villages in India, because if we crossed the difficult passes beyond the glacier, we would find ourselves in Tibet. We told the watchman we would be quite satisfied if we reached the glacier.
Then Anil made the mistake of mentioning the Abominable Snowman, of whom we had been reading in the papers. The people of Nepal believe in the existence of the Snowman, and our watchman was a Nepali.
"Yes, I have seen the Yeti," he told us. "A great shaggy flat-footed creature. In the winter, when it snows heavily, he passes by the bungalow at night. I have seen his tracks the next morning."
"Does he come this way in the summer?" I asked anxiously. We were sitting before another of Bisnu's fires, drinking tea with condensed milk, and trying to get through a black, sticky sweet which the watchman had produced from his tin trunk.
"The yeti doesn't come here in the summer," said the old man. "But I have seen the Lidini sometimes. You have to be careful of her."
"What is a Lidini?" asked Kamal.
"Ah!" said the watchman mysteriously. "You have heard of the Abominable Snowman, no doubt, but there are few who have heard of the Abominable Snowwoman! And yet she is far the more dangerous of the two!"
"What is she like?" asked Anil, and we all craned forward.
"She is of the same height as the Yeti—about seven feet when her back is straight—and her hair is much longer. She has very long teeth and nails. Her feet face inwards, but she can run very fast, especially downhill. If you see a Lidini, and she chases you, always run away in an uphill direction. She tires quickly because of her feet. But when running downhill she has no trouble at all, and you have to be very fast to escape her!"
"Well, we're all good runners," said Anil with a nervous laugh, "but it's just a fairy story, I don't believe a word of it."
"But you must believe fairy stories," I said, remembering a performance of Peter Pan in London, when those in the audience who believed in fairies were asked to clap their hands in order to save Tinker Bell's life. "Even if they aren't true," I added, deciding there was a world of difference between Tinker Bell and the Abominable Snowwoman.
"Well, I don't believe there's a Snowman or a Snow-woman!" declared Anil.
The watchman was most offended and refused to tell us anything about the Sagpa and Sagpani; but Bisnu knew about them, and later, when we were in bed, he told us that they were similar to Snowmen but much smaller. Their favourite pastime was sleeping, and they became very annoyed if anyone woke them, and became ferocious, and did not give one much time to start running uphill. The Sagpa and Sagpani sometimes kidnapped small children, and taking them to their cave, would look after the children very carefully, feeding them on fruits, honey, rice and earthworms.
"When the Sagpa isn't looking," he said, "you can throw the earthworms over your shoulder."
5. The Glacier
It was a fine sunny morning when we set out to cover the last seven miles to the glacier. We had expected this to be a stiff climb, but the last dak bungalow was situated at well over 10,000 feet above sea level, and the ascent was to be fairly gradual.
And suddenly, abruptly, there were no more trees. As the bungalow dropped out of sight, the trees and bushes gave way to short grass and little blue and pink alpine flowers. The snow peaks were close now, ringing us in on every side. We passed waterfalls, cascading hundreds of feet down precipitous rock faces, thundering into the little river. A great golden eagle hovered over us for some time.
"I feel different again," said Kamal.
"We're very high now," I said. "I hope we won't get headaches."
"I've got one already," complained Anil. "Let's have some tea."
We had left our cooking utensils at the bungalow, expecting to return there for the night, and had brought with us only a few biscuits, chocolate, and a thermos of tea. We finished the tea, and Bisnu scrambled about on the grassy slopes, collecting wild strawberries. They were tiny strawberries, very sweet, and they did nothing to satisfy our appetites. There was no sign of habitation or human life. The only creatures to be found at that height were the gurals—sure-footed mountain goats—and an occasional snow-leopard, or a bear.
We found and explored a small cave, and then, turning a bend, came unexpectedly upon the glacier.
The hill fell away, and there, confronting us, was a great white field of snow and ice, cradled between two peaks that could only have been the abode of the gods. We were speechless for several minutes. Kamal took my hand and held on to it for reassurance; perhaps he was not sure that what he saw was real. Anil's mouth hung open. Bisnu's eyes glittered with excitement.
We proceeded cautiously on the snow, supporting each other on the slippery surface; but we could not go far, because we were quite unequipped for any high-altitude climbing. It was pleasant to feel that we were the only boys in our town who had climbed so high. A few black rocks jutted out from the snow, and we sat down on them, to feast our eyes on the view. The sun reflected sharply from the snow, and we felt surprisingly warm.
"Let's sunbathe!" said Anil, on a sudden impulse.
"Yes, let's do that!" I said.
In a few minutes we had taken off our clothes and, sitting on the rocks, were exposing ourselves to the elements. It was delicious to feel the sun crawling over my skin. Within half an hour I was post box red, and so was Bisnu, and the two of us decided to get into our clothes before the sun scorched the skin off our backs. Kamal and Anil appeared to be more resilient to sunlight, and laughed at our discomfiture. Bisnu and I avenged ourselves by gathering up handfuls of snow and rubbing it on their backs. We dressed quickly enough after that, Anil leaping about like a performing monkey.
Meanwhile, almost imperceptibly, clouds had covered some of the peaks, and white mist drifted down the mountain-slopes. It was time to get back to the bungalow; we would barely make it before dark.
We had not gone far when lightning began to sizzle about the mountain-tops followed by waves of thunder.
"Let's run!" shouted Anil. "We can shelter in the cave!"
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p; The clouds could hold themselves in no longer, and the rain came down suddenly, stinging our faces as it was whipped up by an icy wind. Half-blinded, we ran as fast as we could along the slippery path, and stumbled, drenched and exhausted, into the little cave.
The cave was mercifully dry, and not very dark. We remained at the entrance, watching the rain sweep past us, listening to the wind whistling down the long gorge.
"It will take some time to stop," said Kamal.
"No, it will pass soon," said Bisnu. "These storms are short and fierce."
Anil produced his pocket knife, and to pass the time we carved our names in the smooth rock of the cave.
"We will come here again, when we are older," said Kamal, "and perhaps our names will still be here."
It had grown dark by the time the rain stopped. A full moon helped us find our way, we went slowly and carefully. The rain had loosened the earth, and stones kept rolling down the hillside. I was afraid of starting a landslide.
"I hope we don't meet the Lidini now," said Anil fervently.
"I thought you didn't believe in her," I said.
"I don't," replied Anil. "But what if I'm wrong?"
We saw only a mountain-goat, the gural, poised on the brow of a precipice, silhouetted against the sky.
And then the path vanished.
Had it not been for the bright moonlight, we might have walked straight into an empty void. The rain had caused a landslide, and where there had been a narrow path there was now only a precipice of loose, slippery shale.
"We'll have to go back," said Bisnu. "It will be too dangerous to try and cross in the dark."
"We'll sleep in the cave," I suggested.
"We've nothing to sleep in," said Anil. "Not a single blanket between us and nothing to eat!"
"We'll just have to rough it till morning," said Kamal. "It will be better than breaking our necks here."
We returned to the cave, which did at least have the virtue of being dry. Bisnu had matches, and he made a fire with some dry sticks which had been left in the cave by a previous party. We ate what was left of a loaf of bread.