. Karakoram and western Himalaya 1909, an account of the expedition of H. R. H. Prince Luigi Amadeo of Savoy, duke of the Abruzzi. ock we all met at the station, where the Dukehad made an appointment with the agents, porters and transportvehicles. Pimctuality, however, is extremely relative in the East. See map with the itinerary of the expedition. From Marseilles to Srinagar. 19 The agent did not get there until lialf-past six. About half-an-hourlater turned up the representative of Dhanjiboy, a Parsee who hasa monopoly of the postal service and of carriages, carts and horsesbetween Pindi and
. Karakoram and western Himalaya 1909, an account of the expedition of H. R. H. Prince Luigi Amadeo of Savoy, duke of the Abruzzi. ock we all met at the station, where the Dukehad made an appointment with the agents, porters and transportvehicles. Pimctuality, however, is extremely relative in the East. See map with the itinerary of the expedition. From Marseilles to Srinagar. 19 The agent did not get there until lialf-past six. About half-an-hourlater turned up the representative of Dhanjiboy, a Parsee who hasa monopoly of the postal service and of carriages, carts and horsesbetween Pindi and Srinagar. Presently the ekkas came slowly dribbhngin. Ekkas are strange vehicles. The body is in the shape of an obversepyramid, which stands upon an axle wnthout any springs, between twohigh wheels. The shafts diverge so that their farther ends are abouttwo yards apart. All ekkas appear to be centuries old, tumble-down anddecayed, patched up here and there and everyw^here with bits of rottenstring, so that their holding together at all appears a miracle. Andyet they usually carry some ten or eleven maunds each (between 800. EKKAS. and 900 lbs.). Only three or fom- rather small packages can find roomin the actual body of the ekka ; but on top of these are placed two longpoles, upon which is piled up a load considerably higher than the topof the wheels, giving to the whole a most extraordinary aspect of in-stabihty. The elcka is drawn by a single horse, and does the wholedistance in about eight days. Carts of a more famihar shape are alsoto be had, and are stronger and hold a good deal more. These aredrawn by oxen, and it takes them over a fortnight to get to Srinagar. It took us the whole morning under a broiling sun to count all of theluggage and ascertain that nothing was missing, and then to proceedto its distribution among the ekkas, surrounded the whole time by troopsof coolies shouting and arguing and quarrelling without a momentsrespite. The division of the luggage into
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Keywords: ., bookauthorsavoialu, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookyear1912
