For the first time we had now to put on grass shoes or sandals;
and though they felt strange at first, we soon found that they were
absolutely necessary for the work we had before us. Our shoemaker
charged us six annas, or ninepence, for eight pairs, and that was
thirty per cent. over the proper price. However, as one good day's
work runs through a new pair, they are all the better for being rather
cheap. Along the road in all directions one comes across cast-off
remains of shoes, where the wearer has thrown off his worn-out ones
and refitted from his travelling stock; and in this way the needy
proprietor of a very indifferent pair of shoes may, perchance, make
a favourable exchange with the cast-off pair of a more affluent
pedestrian; but, to judge from the specimens we saw, he must be
very needy indeed in order to benefit by the transaction. On leaving
Poshana, we immediately wound up the precipitous side of a mountain
above us, and soon found that, from the rarification of the air, and
the want of practice, we felt the necessity of calling a halt very
frequently, for the purpose, of course, of admiring the scenery and
expatiating upon the beauties of nature.
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