DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.3909#0165
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all subjects to the same dead level of slavery and extinguish that spirit of freedom, and with
it many of the traditions, that have preserved the Dard races from the degeneracy which
has been the fate of the Arians who reached Kashmir and India.' The indigenous Government
is one whose occasional tyranny is often relieved by, rebellion. I think the Dard Legends
and Songs show that the Dards are a superior people to the Dogras, who wish to: take
their country in defiance of treaty obligations, and I, for one, would almost prefer the conti-
nuance of present anarchy which may end in a national solution or in a direct alliance with
the British, to the Spicier policy of Kashmir which, without shedding blood,* has drained the,
resources of that Paradise on earth and killed the intellectual and moral life of its people*
The administration of justice and the collection of the taxes in Dardistan are carried on,
the former with some show of respect for religious injunctions, the latter with sole regard to
whatever the tax-gatherer can immediately lay his hand upon.
(t)—HABITATIONS.
Most of the villages, whose names I have given elsewhere, are situate on the main line
of roads which, as everywhere in Himalayan countries, generally coincides with the course
of rivers. The villages are sometimes scattered, but as a rule, the houses are closely packed
together. Stones are heaped up and closely cemented, and the upper story, which often is;
only a space shielded by a cloth or by grass-bundles on a few poles, is generally reached by a
stair-case from the outside.f Most villages' are protected by one or more wooden forts,
which—with the exception of the Ghilghit fort—are rude blockhouses, garnished with rows of
beams, behind which it is easy to fight as long as the place is not set on fire. Most villages
also contain an open space, generally near a fountain, where the villagers meet in the evening
and young people make love to each other.} Sometimes the houses contain a subterranean
apartment which is used as a cellar or stable—at other times, the stable forms the lower part
of the house and the family live on the roof under a kind of grass-tent' In Ladak,
a little earth heaped up before the door and impressed with a large wooden seal, was
sufficient, some years ago, to protect a house in the absence of its owner. In JDardistan
bolts, &c, &c, show the prevailing insecurity. I have seen houses which had a
courtyard, round which the rooms were built, but generally all buildings in Dardistan
are of the meanest description—the mosque of Ghilghit, in which I slept one night whilst the
sepoys were burying two or three yards away from me, those who were killed by the so-called rebels,
being almost as miserable a construction as the rest. The inner part of the house is generally
divided from the outer by a beam which goes right across. My vocabulary will show all the.
implements, &c, &c, they use in building, &c. &c. Water-mills and wind-mills are to be found.
* I refer only to the present rule of Kashmir itself and not to the massacres in Dardistan, of which details will
be given further on.
•j- Vide my comparison batweon Dardu buildings, &e. &s., and certain excavations which I made at Takht-i-Bahi in
Tusufzai in 1870.
. J Seduction and adultery a'e punished with death in Chilas and the neighbouring independent Districts.
Morality is, perh.ipa, not quite so steru at Ghilghit, whi st in Yasin and Nagyr great laxity is said to prevail.
all subjects to the same dead level of slavery and extinguish that spirit of freedom, and with
it many of the traditions, that have preserved the Dard races from the degeneracy which
has been the fate of the Arians who reached Kashmir and India.' The indigenous Government
is one whose occasional tyranny is often relieved by, rebellion. I think the Dard Legends
and Songs show that the Dards are a superior people to the Dogras, who wish to: take
their country in defiance of treaty obligations, and I, for one, would almost prefer the conti-
nuance of present anarchy which may end in a national solution or in a direct alliance with
the British, to the Spicier policy of Kashmir which, without shedding blood,* has drained the,
resources of that Paradise on earth and killed the intellectual and moral life of its people*
The administration of justice and the collection of the taxes in Dardistan are carried on,
the former with some show of respect for religious injunctions, the latter with sole regard to
whatever the tax-gatherer can immediately lay his hand upon.
(t)—HABITATIONS.
Most of the villages, whose names I have given elsewhere, are situate on the main line
of roads which, as everywhere in Himalayan countries, generally coincides with the course
of rivers. The villages are sometimes scattered, but as a rule, the houses are closely packed
together. Stones are heaped up and closely cemented, and the upper story, which often is;
only a space shielded by a cloth or by grass-bundles on a few poles, is generally reached by a
stair-case from the outside.f Most villages' are protected by one or more wooden forts,
which—with the exception of the Ghilghit fort—are rude blockhouses, garnished with rows of
beams, behind which it is easy to fight as long as the place is not set on fire. Most villages
also contain an open space, generally near a fountain, where the villagers meet in the evening
and young people make love to each other.} Sometimes the houses contain a subterranean
apartment which is used as a cellar or stable—at other times, the stable forms the lower part
of the house and the family live on the roof under a kind of grass-tent' In Ladak,
a little earth heaped up before the door and impressed with a large wooden seal, was
sufficient, some years ago, to protect a house in the absence of its owner. In JDardistan
bolts, &c, &c, show the prevailing insecurity. I have seen houses which had a
courtyard, round which the rooms were built, but generally all buildings in Dardistan
are of the meanest description—the mosque of Ghilghit, in which I slept one night whilst the
sepoys were burying two or three yards away from me, those who were killed by the so-called rebels,
being almost as miserable a construction as the rest. The inner part of the house is generally
divided from the outer by a beam which goes right across. My vocabulary will show all the.
implements, &c, &c, they use in building, &c. &c. Water-mills and wind-mills are to be found.
* I refer only to the present rule of Kashmir itself and not to the massacres in Dardistan, of which details will
be given further on.
•j- Vide my comparison batweon Dardu buildings, &e. &s., and certain excavations which I made at Takht-i-Bahi in
Tusufzai in 1870.
. J Seduction and adultery a'e punished with death in Chilas and the neighbouring independent Districts.
Morality is, perh.ipa, not quite so steru at Ghilghit, whi st in Yasin and Nagyr great laxity is said to prevail.