Its fruits are abundant, and ripen a month earlier than those
at Faizabad, the capital of that country. The Varsach or Mashhad river is
Marco's "Flum auques grant." Wood (247) calls it "the largest stream we
had yet forded in Badakhshan."
It is very notable that in Ramusio, in Pipino, and in one passage of the
G. Text, the name is written Scasem, which has led some to suppose the
Ish-Kashm of Wood to be meant. That place is much too far east - in fact,
beyond the city which forms the subject of the next chapter. The apparent
hesitation, however, between the forms Casem and Scasem suggests that
the Kishm of our note may formerly have been termed S'kashm or Ish-Kashm,
a form frequent in the Oxus Valley, e.g. Ish-Kimish, Ish-Kashm, Ishtrakh,
Ishpingao. General Cunningham judiciously suggests (Ladak, 34) that
this form is merely a vocal corruption of the initial S before a
consonant, a combination which always troubles the Musulman in India, and
converts every Mr. Smith or Mr. Sparks into Ismit or Ispak Sahib.
[There does not seem to me any difficulty about this note: "Shibarkhan
(Afghan Turkistan), Balkh, Kunduz, Khanabad, Talikan, Kishm, Badakhshan."
I am tempted to look for Dogana at Khanabad.
