variety of examples. Another instance of the appearance
of similar characters in a race q£ - Asiatic mountaineers
occurs in the game work, from which I have cited thp present
.description. In the expedition into the hiE^eountiiea near
the Sutlej, Mr, Eraser was accompanied by Patan soldiers
from Affgh4nigtan, between eighty and a hundred in
number, He §ays that they were “ soldierly and imposing
in their appearance, Many of them had red hair, blue
eyes, and clear florid comple?iQng, 5gipuerftlly tinging the
eyelids with antimony.”^ The appearance of the xanthous
complexion among these. Hindd monntaineer& ^n n o t he
attributed to intermixture with Tibetans, org Bhotiyahs, for
the Tibetans, though they may he considered with ths
Chinese.as a white race, have generally black hair and black
eyes.
Mr, Eraser has likewise given some notices of tlifeceuntrieg
lying between the Sutlej and Kashmir. The principal states
to the westward of the Sutlej, are Knlu, C^amM, Mandi,
Kangrah, Sukhet^ and Ghlihur, The two first are of great
extent, and stretch, as does also Bisahur, through the Snowy
Range of Himalaya: tp the northward of these they are
continuous with Ladhak and with other countries of Tibet,
the inhabitants of which are so termed Tartar tribes,
subject nominally to China and reverencing the Great Lama
of Tishu Lumbu. The states above mentioned are now
tributary to the Sikhs. To the south-west of Kdlu Res part
qf Kuhlfir, or Belaspore and Mandi, stilLfurther westward
and stretching down into the plains of the Panjab»
Seqt*on IV .-^Ifistor-y| af Kashmir.
In the western region of Alpine India is the celebrated
valley of Kashmir, separated by a narrow meuntainous
crest from Little Tibet, Kashmir is estimated at one hundred
and ten miles in length by sixty in extreme breadth.
It is said to resemble a garden in perpetual spring; the
* $ee also, Ff§&ef’s Accpimfrof a. Journey to the Sonrcea of the Jumna and
Bhagirafhi Risers.—Asiatic^ J^esearcheg,, vol. tn., page 1Q5*
climate approaches that of soufhéfrn Europe, and rain and
snow oocuri^iithe same seasons as in Tartary and Persia:
thepeöplê live: chiefly, on rice,-but, they eat also fish and
drink wine.#
?r The natives of Kashmir are óf genuine Hindd descent: ih
features ■ thèy haVe not the slightest resemblance to their
Tartar or Bhdtlyab neighbours * Their speech is a peculiar
dialects of the Indian language, hut very much resembles
the Bengali and Hindustani* /<
Kashmir, though situated so remotely from/the centre of
India?, is theonly country respecting which récords Havé heen
preserved fin ariy degree meriting the .epithet, of historical
compositions. The Rajb Taringmj or History of Kashmir
has been, celebrated in.the , East ever since the time of Akbar,
when his learned minister, Abul-fazil, introdu^d it to the
knowledge öf the Mohammedan lords of India. This work*
as We learn from the analysis. pf its contents -by Professor
Wilson, is in fact a series of histerieSi Composed at different
timesUi^^^rMest^«arAm: was written in0Sanskritj; hy
Calhana Pandi^ who lived about a .d . 11,48, and professed
to have compiled his work«, ^bringing down the annals of
Kashmir from the earliest and fabulous times: to, the reign
of Sangrama Deva, in a .d . 1027, or 949. of the Indian era of
Salivahana, from ancie»t. Kasbudrianj J# -
tories, which he enumerates*. Like most Indian .composi-»
tions it is written in, verse, and is in fact a -poem * “ Hi the
utter darkness which envelopes- the history of India previous
to*; the Mohamm^an: invasion, such a work,” as
Professor Wilson observes, “ acquires an importance
greater than the value of the composition, itself, or the
transactions which it records^- It begins with a saga
relative to the draining' of the beautiful valley of Kashmir,
formerly the lake of Uma the wife of Mahadeo,, by the
Hind A Saint Kasyapa,son of Marichi, whom Dr. Hamilton
places in the twentieth century before Christ. About this
time it is likely, in the opinion of Wilson, that Kashmir
became colonised. The first inhabitants, though introduced.
by Kbsyapa, are said to have worshipped Nagas, or Snake-
* Hamilton’s Description of Hindustan, vol. 1, page 509, j