317 seqq., XXXIII. 271-272; I. B.
III. 86; J. As. IX. 203, and J. R. A. S. N.S. V. 103, 278.)
The route of which Marco had heard must almost certainly have been one of
those leading by the high Valley of Zebak, and by the Dorah or the Nuksan
Pass, over the watershed of Hindu-Kush into Chitral, and so to Dir, as
already noticed. The difficulty remains as to how he came to apply the
name Pashai to the country south-east of Badakhshan. I cannot tell. But
it is at least possible that the name of the Pashai tribe (of which the
branches even now are spread over a considerable extent of country) may
have once had a wide application over the southern spurs of the Hindu-
Kush.[2] Our Author, moreover, is speaking here from hearsay, and hearsay
geography without maps is much given to generalising. I apprehend that,
along with characteristics specially referable to the Tibetan and Mongol
traditions of Udyana, the term Pashai, as Polo uses it, vaguely covers the
whole tract from the southern boundary of Badakhshan to the Indus and the
Kabul River.
But even by extending its limits to Attok, we shall not get within seven
marches of Kashmir. It is 234 miles by road from Attok to Srinagar; more
than twice seven marches. And, according to Polo's usual system, the
marches should be counted from Chitral, or some point thereabouts.
