On entering, we found a number of
ancient carvings on the massive stone walls, but they were much worn,
and the designs to us were unintelligible. Some of them were like
the Hindoo divinities, while others were more like Christian devices,
such as cherubims, &c. Altogether, it puzzled us completely as to its
origin; but there was no doubt whatever as to its having existed from
an extremely ancient date; and from its general style, as well as the
absence of any similitude to any other place of heathen worship we have
met, we set it down in our own minds as most probably a temple to the
Sun.[10] Most of the figures, as far as their worn state would allow
one to judge, appeared to be female; and there was an entire absence
of any symbol at all resembling a cross. Many of the huge pillars had
been eaten away as if they were of wood, by the combined effects of
wind and weather; but hands had also been at work, as pieces of the
decorations and figures appeared scattered about in every direction.
Passing through the town of Islamabad on our return, we went into some
of the houses to see the people at work at the loom-made shawls. Very
hard-working and intricate business it seemed to be, and very hard
and MANCHESTERY the production looked to my eye, far inferior to the
hand-made, shawl, though not generally considered so.
I tried to negotiate a shawl with the overseer, but he assured me
that the pieces were all made separately, and were sent in to the
merchant at Sirinugger to be put together, and that he in fact had
nothing whatever to do with the sale of them.
In the evening we dined at a fashionably late hour, and were lulled
to sleep by the simple music of our domesticated waterfall.
JULY 14. - Started at daybreak for Atchabull, three and a half kos
off towards the north-east. The baraduree we found situated in the
middle of a large reservoir, in a beautiful but half-ruined garden;
and here, the commissariat being unusually late in arriving, we
took the edge off our appetites with a quantity of small apricots,
red plums, cherries, &c.
While exploring the gardens, we found, among other remains of grandeur,
a Humaam, or hot-bath room, which was in very good preservation, and
had probably in its day been honoured by the fair presence of Noor
Jehan, with whom Atchabull was a favourite resort, and who has been,
at one time or another, over all these gardens, during her lord's
visit to the valley.
About thirty yards from the house, at the base of an almost
perpendicular hill, were the great sources of interest which the place
possesses - viz., a number of springs of ice-cold water, bubbling up
to a height of two or three feet above the surrounding water level,
and forming three separate rivers: one in the centre which expanded
round our house, and one on either side. Around were fruit-trees of
all sorts and kinds, and from every quarter came the gurgling sound
of rushing water mingled with the singing of innumerable birds. Here
sweetly indeed do the "founts of the valley fall;" and their number
and beauty, as well as the purity of the clear and crystal streams
which they pour over the length and breadth of the land, it is which
forms one of its chief and pleasantest features, and has, no doubt,
mainly contributed to its reputation as a terrestrial paradise. To
the abundance of these streams the inhabitants are indebted for the
crops of waving rice which spread their delicately-green carpetting
over the entire valley; the purity of the waters give to the silks
the brightness of their dyes and to their shawls their fame; and from
its virtues also the love-lighted eyes are supposed to derive their
far-famed lustre. No wonder, therefore, that to the Hindoo at least,
"Cashmere is all holy land." From his sun-burnt plains and his home
by the muddy banks of his sacred Ganges, he can form but a small
conception of these cooling streams and shady pleasures. Should he
happen to read the glowing descriptions of Lalla Rookh, and be perhaps
led to reflect that -
"If woman can make the worst wilderness dear,
What a heaven she must make of Cashmere!"
He no doubt ejaculates "Wa, wa!" in admiration of the poetry of
the West, and thinks complacently of the partner of his joys as all
his fancy painted her. His highest flights of imagination, however,
probably fail to transplant him very far beyond the actual wilderness
which bounds his mortal vision, while Pudmawutee and Oonmadinee,
as here depicted by his own artistic skill, present, in all their
loveliness of form and feature, his best conceptions of ideal worth
and beauty. No wonder, therefore, that the reality of
"Those roses, the brightest that earth ever gave,
Those grottoes and gardens and fountains so clear!"
and above all of -
"Those love-lighted eyes that hang over their wave,"[11]
should shed its influence largely on his imagination, and that,
in contrast to his own dry and dusty native plains, Cashmere should
well be called the Hindoo's Paradise.
JULY 15. - Marched at dawn for Vernagh, a distance of eight kos,
rather over a Sabbath-day's journey. Here we had to wait a considerable
time for our breakfast, the cook being an indifferent pedestrian and
the day a very hot one.
