Beilam river, are inhabited by a very peculiar people, called, indifferently, Kafirs, or Siâhpoosh. Marco Polo mentions their country by the name of Bacian, or Basiam, and notices their singularity of speech, and brown complexions. He accuses them of dealing with enchantments and diabolic arts, but gives them credit for wisdom. They lived upon animal food and rice, and the men wore rings in their ears, and also gold and silver brooches, sometimes set with gems.

A clear and ample description of Kafiristan and its extraordinary inhabitants is to be found in Mountstuart Elphinstone's 'Account of the Kingdom of Caubul.' According to Rennel's Map of Hindostan, the district is comprised between Kashkar on the north-east, Badakhshan on the north, Kunduz on the north-west, Anderab, Khost, and Kohistan on the west, and Kashmeer on the east. The peaks of the mountains are covered with snow for the greater part of the year, but their sides are clad with forests of pine, and furrowed by small fertile valleys in which the grape arrives at maturity, though both wheat and millet are of inferior quality. Sheep, cattle, and goats constitute the chief wealth of the villagers. The roads are little better than mountain tracks, the ravines being crossed by wooden bridges, or by swinging bridges made of ropes of withy. The villages are perched on the hill-sides, and are populous and well-to-do.

Strictly speaking, there is no national name for this people, which is not so much a nation as an aggregation of separate tribes, each dwelling in its own valley. By the Mohammedans they are generally called Siah-poosh, or the Black-Vested, though one division is best known as the Speen Kafirs, or White Infidels, from their white cotton garments. They are all fair-complexioned, with blue eyes, and are remarkably handsome, with a fine open forehead, bushy arched eyebrows, black hair and whiskers, and a lithe active figure. Unlike most

Asiatics they prefer a chair to cushions or carpet, and pride themselves on their supposed Greek descent, though it is probable that they are simply descended from the idolaters whom the Mohammedans drove out of Kandahar. Different but cognate dialects are spoken by the different sections of the community, and all based upon Sanskrit.

They believe in the Unity of the Deity, though they make to themselves graven images of wood and stone, male and female, on foot and on horseback, to represent great personages who have passed away from this world and now act as mediators and intercessors. In their eyes there is no virtue greater than a liberal and hospitable disposition. The idols are sprinkled with cow's blood, and fire is used at all religious ceremonies. They erect a stone and say: "This stands for God, but we know not His shape.' A fire is kindled in front of the stone, and through the flames are thrown flour, butter, and water, while the blood of a victim is sprinkled upon the stone itself. Part of the flesh is burnt, and part eaten by the priests, who are hereditary, but devoid of influence.

Fish is their abhorrence, but they are partial to goats' flesh and to game. Their chief diet, however, consists of cheese, butter, milk, bread, and suet pudding. Meat they prefer half raw. Both sexes drink too freely of wine, which is of various qualities, red, white, and dark, with one kind almost of the consistence of jelly, and very strong. They use silver goblets, and possess pottery of curious patterns.

Men marry at from twenty to thirty years of age, and women at about fifteen or sixteen. A bride is occasionally valued at as many as twenty cows. Marriage is not so much a religious ceremony as an excuse for eating, drinking, singing, and dancing. Polygamy is practised, and all the drudgery is done by women. A mother and her babe are put away into a house outside the village, and are considered impure for twenty-four

days, at the expiration of which they are brought back with song and dance.

The costume of the common people consists of four goatskins, two for a vest and two for a petticoat, worn with the long hair outside, and girded round the waist with a leather belt; their arms are uncovered. The Siah-poosh go bare-headed, except when they have slain a Moslem. They shave their heads, with the exception of a long tuft on the crown, and a curl over each ear. The beard is suffered to grow to the length of four or five inches, but they pull out the hair from the upper lip, the cheeks, and neck. Rich people wear a shirt beneath the vest, as do also the women, and instead of goat-skins clothe themselves in cotton or black hair cloth, some preferring a white blanket woven in Kashmeer, worn something like a Scottish plaid, but reaching to the knee and fastened round the waist by a belt. They likewise indulge in cotton trousers, which, as well as the shirts, are embroidered with flowers in red and blue worsted. The women dress like the men, only that their hair is plaited and twisted round on the top of their head, surmounted by a small cap, round which a light turban is wound. Silver ornaments and cowry shells are decidedly fashionable. Virgins are distinguished by a red fillet round the head. Both sexes have rings round the neck and in the ears, and are partial to bracelets of pewter or brass, and especially of silver.

The houses are built of wood, with cellars for storing cheese, ghee, wine, and vinegar. They usually sit on drum-shaped stools of wickerwork, like the Indian morah, and make use of tables. They are passionately fond of dancing of a vehement character. Their musical instruments are a tabor and pipe, and the dancers keep time with their voices as well as with their feet. Their music is quick, varied, and somewhat wild.

In hunting and in war, they use a bow fifty-four inches in length, with a leathern thong for string. Their arrows are

made from light reeds, and have barbed heads, occasionally poisoned. On the right side they carry a dagger, and on the left a sharp knife. Firearms and swords are still scarce, but are becoming more common than formerly. The greatest glory a Siahpoosh can ever hope to attain is by slaying a Mohammedan. Otherwise, they are represented as a harmless, affectionate people, merry and sociable, and as placable as they are passionate. It has been related in a preceding chapter how Timour succeeded in striking awe into these barbarians by lowering himself and his troops down by platforms from ridge to ridge, until he reached the level of their narrow valleys. With that one exception, they have always preserved their independence.

In the Upper Valley of the Beilam or Kunar river lies the considerable district of Chitral, which Colonel Yule is disposed to regard as identical with the Venetian traveller's Cascar, or Cashkar. Moorcroft speaks of an Upper and a Lower Chitral, each with a chief town named Mastuch, or Mastoi. The Raja, who resided chiefly at Yassin, was a Soonee, while his people were Sheeahs. They are Dards and Dungars, and speak a mixed dialect. Though tall, athletic men, they are of cowardly disposition, and the women are stigmatized as coarse and immodest. Their heads are of a conical shape, caused by a strong band being tightly bound round them in infancy. According to tradition, Chitral was the Shrab Khana, or Wine Cellar, of Afrasiab. Colonel Yule conjectures that the Pashai province of Marco Polo, described as ten days to the south of Badakhshan, coincided with Chitral, though the Pashai tribe is now settled on the left bank of the Kabul river between that city and Jelalabad-an aboriginal race, with a dialect similar to that of the Kafirs, and not improbably the Udyana of Northern Buddhist legends. In the thirteenth century they were idolaters, and, according to Marco Polo, 'a pestilent people and a crafty, and they live upon flesh and rice.'

In the spring of 1870 the compiler of this work, at that time editing a newspaper in Calcutta, received a letter from Lieutenant Hayward, dated 'Camp, Yassin, March 7,' from which the following extract is taken. A duplicate copy, sent to the editor of a journal at Allahabad, was imprudently published, to the sore prejudice of that courageous and persevering traveller. 'The countries of Chitral and Yassin have been from time immemorial under the rule of the ancestors of the present Chief of Chitral, Rajah Aman-i-Moolk, while the present Yassin Chief is descended from a branch of the same family. They claim descent from Alexander of Macedon, through the kings of Khorasan. Certainly they possess a pedigree of high antiquity, and can boast an uninterrupted succession. The elder son of the Chitral ruler takes the name of Shah Katore, which title was assumed by the grandfather of the present Chief, Aman-iMoolk. The chiefs of Yassin have intermarried so frequently with the family of the Shah Katore, until, apart from a common descent, they have become the same in their feelings and prejudices. Even Swat can hardly be considered to be more inaccessible to Europeans and strangers from the bigotry and fanaticism of its inhabitants than the countries of Chitral and Yassin. But there is this difference. While the population of Swat owes no fealty to any ruler, and acknowledges solely the spiritual authority of the Akhoond, the inhabitants of Yassin and Chitral are as much subject to their respective rulers as any serf in Russia, or fellah in Turkey or Egypt. The ablest and most energetic of these later Yassin chiefs would appear to have been Rajah Goor Rahman Khan, who ruled over Yassin and Gilgit from about 1835 to 1858, a period ever eventful in Indian history. During the reign of this chief, Goolab Singh the Maharajah of Kashmir commenced hostilities against Gilgit, after conquering Ladakh and Baltistan. While, however, the able Goor Rahman was alive, the Dogras could never obtain