S h a w l s .
thunders, and raifed ftorms o f hail, rain, fnow, and wind. He
looked favage, having a large white beard uncombed, which,
like that of our Druid, “ ftreamed like a meteor to the troubled
air.” The fage forbid the making the left noife, on pain of
railing furious ftorms and tempefts.
Cajbmere is famous for its manufacture o f Jhawls, made o f
the wool o f the broad-tailed Iheep, who are found in the kingdom
of ’Thibet; and their fleeces, in finenefs, beauty, and length,
fays Mr. Bogle, in Ph. Tranf. lxviii. 485, exceed all others in the
world. The Cajhmerians engrofs this article, and have faitors-
in all parts o f Thibet for buying up the wool, which is fent into
Cajbmere, and worked into Jhawls, fuperior in elegance to thofe
woven even from the fleeces o f their own country. This manufacture
is a confiderable fource of wealth. Bernier relates,
that in his days, Jhawls made exprefsly for the great Omrahs,.
o f the Tbibetiah wool, coft a hundred and fifty roupees,
whereas thofe made of the wool of the country never coft more
than fifty.
Akbar was a moft particular encourager of the manufacture^
He not only paid a great attention to thofe of this province,
but introduced them into Lahore, where, in his days, there:
were a thoufand manufactories, fays Abulfazul, of this commodity.
The natural color of the wool o f the 'Toos ajfel, the
name o f the animal, is grey, tinged with red, but fome are quite
white. Akbar firft introduced the dying them. The wool o f
another animal ufed in the manufacture is white or black, out
out o f which were woven white, black, and grey ihawls.
Poflibly two forts o f animals may produce the material'; one
indifputably
indifputably the iheep I mention, the other I have heard
called a goat.
T he domeftic animals o f this country are horfes, fmall,
hardy, and fure-footed. Cows, black and ugly, but yield
plenty o f milk and excellent butter. Here is alfo a Iheep, called
Hundoo, which is ufed to carry burdens. No defcription is left
to vindicate me for imagining it to be either the camel, (Llama,
Hift. Quad. i. N" 73.) or the Chilibucque (N°74-); the firft of
which is ufed for burdens in Peru, the laft, formerly in Chili.
Certain it is that India has a tali iheep, which, faddled, actually
can carry a boy twelve years old. It is found about Surat.
Whether it could bear the fnows of the Cajhmerian Alps, I leave
for the fubjeCt of future inquiry.
Abulfazul, p. 155, vol. ii. mentions the elk as one o f the
wild animals of the country ; and adds, that the hunting leopards
are made ufe of in the chafe of that enormous deer. The
Chittah, or hunting .leopard, muft be brought from the fcorched
plains of Bengal The elk may be a native of the woods at the
bafe of the fnowy mountains, for they are impatient o f heat,
and require forefts, for they fubfift both by browzing and
by grazing. . . . ' -
Cajbmere, fays its hiftorians, had its-own princes four thoufand
years before its cûnqueft by Akbar in 1583. Humaioon
caft a longing eye on this rich gem, but by different accidents
the acquifition Was referved for his fon. Akbar would have
found difficulty to reduce this paradife of the Indies, fituated- as
it is within fuch a fortrefs of mountains, but its monarch, Tu-
fo f Khan, was bafely betrayed by his Omrahs. Akbar ufed his
conqueft with moderation, and allowed a penfion to the con-
II a quered
P r in c e s .