- Wood thinks that the Tajik inhabitants of Badakhshan and the
adjoining districts are substantially of the same race as the Kafir tribes
of Hindu Kush.
At the time of Polo's visit it would seem that their
conversion to Islam was imperfect. They were probably in that transition
state which obtains in our own day for some of the Hill Mahomedans
adjoining the Kafirs on the south side of the mountains the reproachful
title of Nimchah Musulman, or Half-and-halfs. Thus they would seem to
have retained sundry Kafir characteristics; among others that love of wine
which is so strong among the Kafirs. The boiling of the wine is noted by
Baber (a connoisseur) as the custom of Nijrao, adjoining, if not then
included in, Kafir-land; and Elphinstone implies the continuance of the
custom when he speaks of the Kafirs as having wine of the consistence of
jelly, and very strong. The wine of Kapishi, the Greek Kapisa,
immediately south of Hindu Kush, was famous as early as the time of the
Hindu grammarian Panini, say three centuries B.C. The cord twisted round
the head was probably also a relic of Kafir costume: "Few of the Kafirs
cover the head, and when they do, it is with a narrow band or fillet of
goat's hair ... about a yard or a yard and a half in length, wound round
the head." This style of head-dress seems to be very ancient in India, and
in the Sanchi sculptures is that of the supposed Dasyas. Something very
similar, i.e. a scanty turban cloth twisted into a mere cord, and wound
two or three times round the head, is often seen in the Panjab to this
day.
The Postin or sheepskin coat is almost universal on both sides of the
Hindu Kush; and Wood notes: "The shoes in use resemble half-boots, made of
goatskin, and mostly of home manufacture." (Baber, 145; J. A. S. B.
XXVIII. 348, 364; Elphinst. II. 384; Ind. Antiquary, I. 22; Wood,
174, 220; J. R. A. S. XIX. 2.)
NOTE 4. - Marsden was right in identifying Scassem or Casem with the
Kechem of D'Anville's Map, but wrong in confounding the latter with the
Kishmabad of Elphinstone - properly, I believe, Kishnabad - in the
Anderab Valley. Kashm, or Keshm, found its way into maps through Petis de
la Croix, from whom probably D'Anville adopted it; but as it was ignored
by Elphinstone (or by Macartney, who constructed his map), and by Burnes,
it dropped out of our geography. Indeed, Wood does not notice it except as
giving name to a high hill called the Hill of Kishm, and the position even
of that he omits to indicate. The frequent mention of Kishm in the
histories of Timur and Humayun (e.g. P. de la Croix, I. 167; N. et E.
XIV. 223, 491; Erskine's Baber and Humayun, II. 330, 355, etc.) had
enabled me to determine its position within tolerably narrow limits; but
desiring to fix it definitely, application was made through Colonel
Maclagan to Pandit Manphul, C.S.I., a very intelligent Hindu gentleman,
who resided for some time in Badakhshan as agent of the Panjab Government,
and from him arrived a special note and sketch, and afterwards a MS.
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