five o'clock
In India -- in the plains -- people rise before dawn , and it is not till after some weeks ' residence in the cooler atmosphere of the mountains that they return to the pernicious habit of allowing the sun to be before them . The hours of early morning , when one either mopes about in loose flannel clothes , or goes for a gallop on the green _ maidán _ , are without exception the most delicious of the day . I shall have occasion hereafter to describe the morning 's proceedings in the plains . On the day after the events recorded in the last chapter I awoke as usual at five o'clock , and meandered out on to the verandah to have a look at the hills , so novel and delicious a sight after the endless flats of the northwest provinces . It was still nearly dark , but there was a faint light in the east , which rapidly grew as I watched it , till , turning the angle of the house , I distinguished a snow-peak over the tops of the dark rhododendrons , and , while I gazed , the first tinge of distant dawning caught the summit , and the beautiful hill blushed , as a fair woman , at the kiss of the awakening sun . The old story , the heaven wooing the earth with a wondrous shower of gold . `` Prati ` shya sunarî janî '' -- the exquisite lines of the old Vedic hymn to the dawn maiden , rose to my lips .