DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.3909#0153
(33 J
the custom is to put a number of Ghi (clarified butter) cakes before the Mulla, [after the earth
has been put on the deceased] wbo, after reading prayers over them, distributes them to the com-
pany who are standing round with their caps on. In Ghilgit, three days after the burial, bread
is generally distributed to the friends and acquaintances of the deceased.] To return to the
wine presses, it is to be noticed that no one ever interferes with the store of another.
I passed several of them on my road from Tshakerkot onward, but they appeared to have
been destroyed. This brings me to another custom which all the Dards seem to have of
burying provisions of every kind in cellars that are scooped out in the mountains or near their
houses, and of which they alone have any knowledge. The Maharajah's troops when invading
Ghilgit often suffered severely from want of food when, unknown to them, large stores of grain of
every kind, butter, ghi, &c, were buried close to them. The Ghilgitis and other so-called rebels,
generally, were well off, knowing where to go for food. Even in subject Astor it is the custom
to lay up provisions in this manner. On the day of birth of any one in that country it is the
custom to bury a stock of provisions which are opened on the day of betrothal of the young
man and distributed. The ghi, which by that time turns frightfully sour and [to our taste]
unpalatable and the colour of which is red, is esteemed a great delicacy and is said to
bring much luck.
The chalk used for cementing the stones is called " San batt." Grapes are called
il Djatsh," and are said, together with wine, to have been the principal food of Ghazanfar,
the Rajah of Hunza, of whom it is reported that when he heard of the arrival of the first
European in Astor (probably Vigne) he fled to a fort called Gojal and shut himself up in it
with his flocks, family and retainers. He had been told that the European was a great
- sorcerer, who carried an army with him in his trunks and who had serpents at his command
that stretched themselves over any river in his way to afford him a passage. I found this
reputation of European sorcery of great use, and the wild mountaineers looked with respect
and awe on a little bos which I carried with me, and which contained some pictures of
clowns and soldiers belonging to a small Magic lantern. The Ghilgitis consider the use of wine
as unlawful; probably it is not very long since they have become so religious and drink it with
remorse. My Ghilgitis told me that the Muyulli—a sect living in Hunza, Gojal, Yassen and
Punya—considered the use of wine 'with prayers to be rather meritorious than otherwise.
A Drunkard is called " Mato."
(c.)—BIRTH CEREMONIES.
As soon as the child is born the father or the Mulla repeat the " bang" in his ear " Allah
Akbar" (which an Astori, of the name of Mirza Khan, said was never again repeated in one's
life!). Three days after the reading of the "Bang" or "Natnaz" in Ghilgit and seven days after
that ceremony in Astor, a large company assembles in which the father or grandfather of the new-
born gives him a name or the Mulla fixes on a name by putting his hand on some word in the
Koran, which may serve the purpose or by getting somebody else to fix his hand at random on
the custom is to put a number of Ghi (clarified butter) cakes before the Mulla, [after the earth
has been put on the deceased] wbo, after reading prayers over them, distributes them to the com-
pany who are standing round with their caps on. In Ghilgit, three days after the burial, bread
is generally distributed to the friends and acquaintances of the deceased.] To return to the
wine presses, it is to be noticed that no one ever interferes with the store of another.
I passed several of them on my road from Tshakerkot onward, but they appeared to have
been destroyed. This brings me to another custom which all the Dards seem to have of
burying provisions of every kind in cellars that are scooped out in the mountains or near their
houses, and of which they alone have any knowledge. The Maharajah's troops when invading
Ghilgit often suffered severely from want of food when, unknown to them, large stores of grain of
every kind, butter, ghi, &c, were buried close to them. The Ghilgitis and other so-called rebels,
generally, were well off, knowing where to go for food. Even in subject Astor it is the custom
to lay up provisions in this manner. On the day of birth of any one in that country it is the
custom to bury a stock of provisions which are opened on the day of betrothal of the young
man and distributed. The ghi, which by that time turns frightfully sour and [to our taste]
unpalatable and the colour of which is red, is esteemed a great delicacy and is said to
bring much luck.
The chalk used for cementing the stones is called " San batt." Grapes are called
il Djatsh," and are said, together with wine, to have been the principal food of Ghazanfar,
the Rajah of Hunza, of whom it is reported that when he heard of the arrival of the first
European in Astor (probably Vigne) he fled to a fort called Gojal and shut himself up in it
with his flocks, family and retainers. He had been told that the European was a great
- sorcerer, who carried an army with him in his trunks and who had serpents at his command
that stretched themselves over any river in his way to afford him a passage. I found this
reputation of European sorcery of great use, and the wild mountaineers looked with respect
and awe on a little bos which I carried with me, and which contained some pictures of
clowns and soldiers belonging to a small Magic lantern. The Ghilgitis consider the use of wine
as unlawful; probably it is not very long since they have become so religious and drink it with
remorse. My Ghilgitis told me that the Muyulli—a sect living in Hunza, Gojal, Yassen and
Punya—considered the use of wine 'with prayers to be rather meritorious than otherwise.
A Drunkard is called " Mato."
(c.)—BIRTH CEREMONIES.
As soon as the child is born the father or the Mulla repeat the " bang" in his ear " Allah
Akbar" (which an Astori, of the name of Mirza Khan, said was never again repeated in one's
life!). Three days after the reading of the "Bang" or "Natnaz" in Ghilgit and seven days after
that ceremony in Astor, a large company assembles in which the father or grandfather of the new-
born gives him a name or the Mulla fixes on a name by putting his hand on some word in the
Koran, which may serve the purpose or by getting somebody else to fix his hand at random on