The
Country Of Cashmere Is A Rich And Fertile Plain Among The Mountains,
Some 150 Coss In Length, And 50 Broad, Abounding In Fruits, Grain, And
Saffron, And Having Beautiful Fair Women.
This country is cold, and
subjected to great frosts and heavy falls of snow, being near to
Cashgar, yet separated by such prodigious mountains that there is no
passage for caravans.
Much silk and other goods are however often
brought this way by men, without the aid of animals, and the goods have
in many places to be drawn up or let down over precipices by means of
ropes. On these mountains dwells a small king called Tibbet,[254] who
lately sent one of his daughters to Shah Selim, by way of making
affinity.
[Footnote 254: Little Thibet, a country hardly known in geography, is on
the north-west of Cashmere, beyond the northern chain of the Vindhia
mountains. - E.]
Nicholas Uphet, [or Ufflet] went from Agra to Surat by a different way
from that by which I came, going by the mountains of Narwar, which
extend to near Ahmedabad in Guzerat. Upon these mountains stands the
impregnable castle of Gur Chitto, or Chitore, the chief seat of the
Ranna, a very powerful rajah, whom neither the Patans, nor Akbar
himself, was ever able to subdue. Owing to all India having been
formerly belonging to the Gentiles, and this prince having always been,
and is still, esteemed in equal reverence as the pope is by the
catholics, those rajahs who have been sent against him have always made
some excuses for not being able to do much injury to his territories,
which extend towards Ahmednagur 150 great cosses, and in breadth 200
cosses towards Oogain, mostly composed of, or inclosed by inaccessible
mountains, well fortified by art in many places. This rajah is able on
occasion to raise 12,000 good horse, and holds many fair towns and
goodly cities.
Ajmeer, the capital of a kingdom or province of that name, west from
Agra, stands on the top of an inaccessible mountain, three coss in
ascent, being quite impregnable. The city at the foot of the hill is not
great, but is well built and surrounded by a stone wall and ditch. It is
chiefly famous for the tomb of Haji Mundee, a saint much venerated by
the Moguls, to which, as formerly mentioned, Akbar made a roomery, or
pilgrimage on foot, from Agra, to obtain a son. Before coming to this
tomb, you have to pass through three fair courts; the first, covering
near an acre of ground, all paved with black and white marble, in which
many of Mahomet's cursed kindred are interred. In this court is a fair
tank all lined with stone. The second court is paved like the former,
but richer, and is twice as large as the Exchange at London, having in
the middle a curious candlestick with many lights. The third court is
entered by a brazen gate of curious workmanship, and is the fairest of
all, especially near the door of the sepulchre, where the pavement is
curiously laid in party-coloured stones. The door is large, and all
inlaid with mother-of-pearl, and the pavement about the tomb is all
mosaic of different-coloured marbles. The tomb itself is splendidly
adorned with mother-of-pearl and gold, having an epitaph in Persian. At
a little distance stands his seat in an obscure corner, where he used to
sit foretelling future events, and which is highly venerated. On the
east side are three other fair courts with each a fair tank; and on the
north and west are several handsome houses, inhabited by sidees, or
Mahometan priests. No person is allowed to enter any of these places
except bare-footed.
Beyond Ajmeer to the west and south-west, are Meerat Joudpoor and
Jalour, which last is a castle on the top of a steep mountain, three
coss in ascent, by a fair stone causeway,[255] broad enough for two men.
At the end of the first coss is a gate and court of guard, where the
causeway is enclosed on both sides with walls. At the end of the second
coss is a double gate strongly fortified; and at the third coss is the
castle, which is entered by three successive gates. The first is very
strongly plated with iron; the second not so strong, with places above
for throwing down melted lead or boiling oil; and the third is thickly
beset with iron spikes. Between each of these gates are spacious places
of arms, and at the inner gate is a strong portcullis. A bow-shot within
the castle is a splendid pagoda, built by the founders of the castle,
ancestors of Gidney Khan, who were Gentiles. He turned Mahometan, and
deprived his elder brother of this castle by the following stratagem:
Having invited him and his women to a banquet, which his brother
requited by a similar entertainment, he substituted chosen soldiers well
armed instead of women, sending them two and two in a dowle,[256] who,
getting in by this device, gained possession of the gates, and held the
place for the Great Mogul, to whom it now appertains, being one of the
strongest situated forts in the world.
[Footnote 255: This is probably a stair. - E.]
[Footnote 256: A dowle, dowly, or dooly, is a chair or cage, in which
their women are carried on men's shoulders. - Purch.]
About half a coss within the gate is a goodly square tank, cut out of
the solid rock, said to be fifty fathoms deep, and full of excellent
water. A little farther on is a goodly plain, shaded with many fine
trees, beyond which, on a small conical hill, is the sepulchre of King
Hasswaard, who was a great soldier in his life, and has been since
venerated as a great saint by the people in these parts. Near this place
is said to be kept a huge snake, twenty-five feet long, and as thick as
the body of a man, which the people will not hurt.
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