To All Other Inhabitants Of The Surrounding Regions,
However, The Word Appears Now To Be Unknown....
"The Balur country would then include Hunza, Nagar, possibly Tash Kurghan,
Gilgit, Panyal, Yasin, Chitral, and probably the tract now known as
Kafiristan:
While, also, some of the small states south of Gilgit, Yasin,
etc., may have been regarded as part of Balur....
"The conclusions arrived at [by Sir H. Yule], are very nearly borne out by
Mirza Haidar's description. The only differences are (1) that, according
to our author, Baltistan cannot have been included in Balur, as he always
speaks of that country, later in his work, as a separate province with the
name of Balti, and says that it bordered on Balur; and (2) that Balur
was confined almost entirely, as far as I am able to judge from his
description in this passage and elsewhere, to the southern slopes of the
Eastern Hindu Kush, or Indus water-parting range; while Sir H. Yule's map
makes it embrace Sarigh-Kul and the greater part of the eastern Pamirs."
XXXIII., p. 182. "The natives [of Cascar] are a wretched, niggardly set of
people; they eat and drink in miserable fashion."
The people of Kashgar seem to have enjoyed from early times a reputation
for rough manners and deceit (Stein, Ancient Khotan, p. 49 n). Stein, p.
70, recalls Hiuan Tsang's opinion: "The disposition of the men is fierce
and impetuous, and they are mostly false and deceitful. They make light of
decorum and politeness, and esteem learning but little." Stein adds, p.
70, with regard to Polo's statement:
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