And, according to Polo's usual system, the
marches should be counted from Chitral, or some point thereabouts.
Sir H. Rawlinson, in his Monograph on the Oxus, has indicated the
probability that the name Pashai may have been originally connected with
Aprasin or Paresin, the Zendavestian name for the Indian Caucasus, and
which occurs in the Babylonian version of the Behistun Inscription as the
equivalent of Gaddra in the Persian, i.e. Gandhara, there applied to the
whole country between Bactria and the Indus. (See J. R. G. S. XLII.
502.) Some such traditional application of the term Pashai might have
survived.
[1] The Kafir dialect of which Mr. Trumpp collected some particulars shows
in the present tense of the substantive verb these remarkable forms: -
Ei sum, Tu sis, siga se; Ima simis, Wi sik, Sige sin.
[2] In the Tabakat-i-Nasiri (Elliot, II. 317) we find mention of the
Highlands of Pasha-Afroz, but nothing to define their position.
CHAPTER XXXI.
OF THE PROVINCE OF KESHIMUR.
Keshimur also is a Province inhabited by a people who are Idolaters and
have a language of their own.[NOTE 1] They have an astonishing
acquaintance with the devilries of enchantment; insomuch that they make
their idols to speak. They can also by their sorceries bring on changes of
weather and produce darkness, and do a number of things so extraordinary
that no one without seeing them would believe them.[NOTE 2] Indeed, this
country is the very original source from which Idolatry has spread
abroad.[NOTE 3]
In this direction you can proceed further till you come to the Sea of
India.
The men are brown and lean, but the women, taking them as brunettes, are
very beautiful. The food of the people is flesh, and milk, and rice. The
clime is finely tempered, being neither very hot nor very cold. There are
numbers of towns and villages in the country, but also forests and desert
tracts, and strong passes, so that the people have no fear of anybody, and
keep their independence, with a king of their own to rule and do
justice.[NOTE 4]
There are in this country Eremites (after the fashion of those parts), who
dwell in seclusion and practise great abstinence in eating and drinking.
They observe strict chastity, and keep from all sins forbidden in their
law, so that they are regarded by their own folk as very holy persons.
They live to a very great age.[NOTE 5]
There are also a number of idolatrous abbeys and monasteries. [The people
of the province do not kill animals nor spill blood; so if they want to
eat meat they get the Saracens who dwell among them to play the
butcher.[NOTE 6]] The coral which is carried from our parts of the world
has a better sale there than in any other country.[NOTE 7]
[Illustration: Ancient Buddhist Temple at Pandrethan in Kashmir]
Now we will quit this country, and not go any further in the same
direction; for if we did so we should enter India; and that I do not wish
to do at present. For, on our return journey, I mean to tell you about
India: all in regular order. Let us go back therefore to Badashan, for we
cannot otherwise proceed on our journey.
NOTE 1. - I apprehend that in this chapter Marco represents Buddhism (which
is to be understood by his expression Idolatry, not always, but usually)
as in a position of greater life and prosperity than we can believe it to
have enjoyed in Kashmir at the end of the 13th century, and I suppose that
his knowledge of it was derived in great part from tales of the Mongol and
Tibetan Buddhists about its past glories.
I know not if the spelling Kesciemur represents any peculiar Mongol
pronunciation of the name. Plano Carpini, probably the first modern
European to mention this celebrated region, calls it Casmir (p. 708).
"The Cashmeerians," says Abu'l Fazl, "have a language of their own, but
their books are written in the Shanskrit tongue, although the character is
sometimes Cashmeerian. They write chiefly upon Tooz [birch-bark], which
is the bark of a tree; it easily divides into leaves, and remains perfect
for many years." (Ayeen Akbery, II. 147.) A sketch of Kashmiri Grammar
by Mr. Edgeworth will be found in vol. x. of the J. A. S. B., and a
fuller one by Major Leech in vol. xiii. Other contributions on the
language are in vol. xxxv. pt. i. p. 233 (Godwin-Austen); in vol. xxxix.
pt. i. p. 95 (Dr. Elmslie); and in Proceedings for 1866, p. 62, seqq.
(Sir G. Campbell and Babu Rajendra Lal Mitra). The language, though in
large measure of Sanskrit origin, has words and forms that cannot be
traced in any other Indian vernacular. (Campbell, pp. 67, 68). The
character is a modification of the Panjab Nagari.
NOTE 2. - The Kashmirian conjurers had made a great impression on Marco,
who had seen them at the Court of the Great Kaan, and he recurs in a later
chapter to their weather sorceries and other enchantments, when we shall
make some remarks. Meanwhile let us cite a passage from Bernier, already
quoted by M. Pauthier. When crossing the Pir Panjal (the mountain crossed
on entering Kashmir from Lahore) with the camp of Aurangzib, he met with
"an old Hermit who had dwelt upon the summit of the Pass since the days of
Jehangir, and whose religion nobody knew, although it was said that he
could work miracles, and used at his pleasure to produce extraordinary
thunderstorms, as well as hail, snow, rain, and wind. There was something
wild in his countenance, and in his long, spreading, and tangled hoary
beard. He asked alms fiercely, allowing the travellers to drink from
earthen cups that he had set out upon a great stone, but signing to them
to go quickly by without stopping.
