DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.3909#0229
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wards turned to the right or northward; a description which agrees with directions pointed out to me from
Acho. The river, after being joined by the Nagyr river, runs down the valley to its confluence with the
Indus.
The Rajah, Tyhir Shah, came originally from Nagyr, .besieged and took prisoner the former ruler,
and put him to death, as I was told, by the consent of his own objects ; and Ahmed Shah informed me that
seven successive Rajahs had been deposed in a similar manner.
The Gilghitis, as also the Siah Posh Kaffirs, are great wine-bibbers. They make their own wine,
and place it in large earthen jars, which are then buried for a time ; but they do not understand the clarifying
process. Some that I tasted was very palatable, but looked mora like mutton broth than wine. When a
man dies, his friends eat raisins over his grave, but abstain from drinking wine upon such an occasion. My
munshi told me that some people from Kholi-Palus, whom he met in Gilghit, reproached him, for my
having been, as they said, the cause of so many of their countrymen being killed in the affair at Deotsuh.
The Rajah's authority is acknowledged for two days' march northward from Gilghit, as far as the
little state of Poniah or Punir. Beyoned that again is Yessen, and it is said that the power of Yessen, or of
Gilghit, preponderates, according to the friendship of the inhabitants of Poniah. The Gilghitis know the
country of Yes3en by the name of Uzir, reminding me of the Buzir of Arriau. The rule of the Yessen RajaH
is extended to the banks of the Indus. I have already remarked that the word is also the fairest approach
that I know of, to the name Assacenes, of Alexander's historions.
Page 309. Jubar Khan, Rajah of Astor, solemnly assured me that he had seen some antiquities exist-
ing in Yassen ; but I should fear that his account is too curious to be true. After informing mf of the existence
of alarge circle of stones, he added that he saw a rectangular mass of rock, about eighteen feet by twelve in
thickness, and hollowed out on the top* Near it, he said, was a stone ball, five or six feet in diameter, and
not far off were two stone pillars, about five feet high, standing a few yards apart. The surface of the
ground near them was quite flit, and containing no vestige of n ruin. The natives, he said, believed
the first to have been a manger for Alexander's horses; the pillars were the pieketing-posts, and with the ball
he played the Ghaughan. [P-ilo] There is a pass called Mustodj or Mustuch, which joins the valley of Wakan,f
I suppose that the name may be extended to the mountains bounding Ghitral on the eastward, as I was told
that after crossing the Mustuch pass, the traveller descends with a stream for several days until he reaches
Ghitral, the country of Shah Kut-or, called also, Tchitchal, by the Gilghitis ; Little Kasbghar, by the
Patans; and Belut by the Chinese; whence also the mountains on the eastward, just alluded to, are called
Belut Tag or Tak. J Shah Kutor was a soldier of fortune, who made himself master of the country, hav-
ing deposed his master, the rightful Rajah, whose grandson had taken refuge with Ahmed Shah, and lived
at Shighur, I found him a very intelligent man, and well acquainted with the geography and animals of the
country. I collected from him a small vocabulary of the Chifrali language, which is called Pureh, and those who
speak it are called Puriali.§ The latter call the Bultis, Bulon Zik. He was particularly expert at training
hawks, and he and his son pursued the sport with great avidity.
Chitral is a long valley lying nearly north and south. The Rajah's residence is at the upper end of
it. The bridge opposite to it was built by one of the Rajahs of Little Tibet. There is a village in Chitral
called Calcutta, a name probably brought there by some Hindu.
* My Sazini confirms this. There is a natural stone gate on the road from Gaktlfcsh to Yasin called the " Hopor somo " =rtha
H6per ceiline.
f Vide Lieutenant Wood's map of Badakhshan.
X Tak is a mountain : Muz Tak signifies the mountain of ice or snow.
. § " Arnyia" in my Dardu Vocabulary is jihe name for the language of Chitral.
wards turned to the right or northward; a description which agrees with directions pointed out to me from
Acho. The river, after being joined by the Nagyr river, runs down the valley to its confluence with the
Indus.
The Rajah, Tyhir Shah, came originally from Nagyr, .besieged and took prisoner the former ruler,
and put him to death, as I was told, by the consent of his own objects ; and Ahmed Shah informed me that
seven successive Rajahs had been deposed in a similar manner.
The Gilghitis, as also the Siah Posh Kaffirs, are great wine-bibbers. They make their own wine,
and place it in large earthen jars, which are then buried for a time ; but they do not understand the clarifying
process. Some that I tasted was very palatable, but looked mora like mutton broth than wine. When a
man dies, his friends eat raisins over his grave, but abstain from drinking wine upon such an occasion. My
munshi told me that some people from Kholi-Palus, whom he met in Gilghit, reproached him, for my
having been, as they said, the cause of so many of their countrymen being killed in the affair at Deotsuh.
The Rajah's authority is acknowledged for two days' march northward from Gilghit, as far as the
little state of Poniah or Punir. Beyoned that again is Yessen, and it is said that the power of Yessen, or of
Gilghit, preponderates, according to the friendship of the inhabitants of Poniah. The Gilghitis know the
country of Yes3en by the name of Uzir, reminding me of the Buzir of Arriau. The rule of the Yessen RajaH
is extended to the banks of the Indus. I have already remarked that the word is also the fairest approach
that I know of, to the name Assacenes, of Alexander's historions.
Page 309. Jubar Khan, Rajah of Astor, solemnly assured me that he had seen some antiquities exist-
ing in Yassen ; but I should fear that his account is too curious to be true. After informing mf of the existence
of alarge circle of stones, he added that he saw a rectangular mass of rock, about eighteen feet by twelve in
thickness, and hollowed out on the top* Near it, he said, was a stone ball, five or six feet in diameter, and
not far off were two stone pillars, about five feet high, standing a few yards apart. The surface of the
ground near them was quite flit, and containing no vestige of n ruin. The natives, he said, believed
the first to have been a manger for Alexander's horses; the pillars were the pieketing-posts, and with the ball
he played the Ghaughan. [P-ilo] There is a pass called Mustodj or Mustuch, which joins the valley of Wakan,f
I suppose that the name may be extended to the mountains bounding Ghitral on the eastward, as I was told
that after crossing the Mustuch pass, the traveller descends with a stream for several days until he reaches
Ghitral, the country of Shah Kut-or, called also, Tchitchal, by the Gilghitis ; Little Kasbghar, by the
Patans; and Belut by the Chinese; whence also the mountains on the eastward, just alluded to, are called
Belut Tag or Tak. J Shah Kutor was a soldier of fortune, who made himself master of the country, hav-
ing deposed his master, the rightful Rajah, whose grandson had taken refuge with Ahmed Shah, and lived
at Shighur, I found him a very intelligent man, and well acquainted with the geography and animals of the
country. I collected from him a small vocabulary of the Chifrali language, which is called Pureh, and those who
speak it are called Puriali.§ The latter call the Bultis, Bulon Zik. He was particularly expert at training
hawks, and he and his son pursued the sport with great avidity.
Chitral is a long valley lying nearly north and south. The Rajah's residence is at the upper end of
it. The bridge opposite to it was built by one of the Rajahs of Little Tibet. There is a village in Chitral
called Calcutta, a name probably brought there by some Hindu.
* My Sazini confirms this. There is a natural stone gate on the road from Gaktlfcsh to Yasin called the " Hopor somo " =rtha
H6per ceiline.
f Vide Lieutenant Wood's map of Badakhshan.
X Tak is a mountain : Muz Tak signifies the mountain of ice or snow.
. § " Arnyia" in my Dardu Vocabulary is jihe name for the language of Chitral.