Come out and do not delay.

Weep not

O fairy of the waterfall !

Weep not! thy colour will fade; Weep not thou art the beloved of us all who are thy brethren, Weep not

13

THE DARDIRS.

JANUARY 5, 1872.]

thy colour will fade.

Oh weep not thou beloved of fathers, [or “thy father's darling.”] For if thou weepest, thy face will grow pale.

stration are of course, inadmissible. After the body has been interred the Mulla recites the

Fatiha, or opening prayer of the Koran, all the people standing up and holding out their hands as if they were reading a book. The Mulla prays

Then the young man catches hold of her dress, or in Ghilgit of her arm, puts her on horseback, and rides off with her, heedless of her tears and of those of her companions.

of hell as he was a good man, &c. Then after a short benediction the people separate. For three days at Ghilgit, and seven days at Astor,

(e)—FUNERALS.

the near relatives of the deceased do not eat

Funerals are conducted in a very simple man ner. The custom of eating grapes at funerals I have already touched upon in my allusion to Dareyl in the chapter on “Wine.” Three days after the funeral, bread is commonly distributed together with ghi, &c., to people in general, which is called “Nashi" by the Astoris, and “ Khatm” by the Ghilgitis. When a person is dead, the Mulla, assisted generally by a near friend of the deceased, washes the body which is then placed in a shroud. Women assemble, weep, and relate the virtues of the deceased. The body is conveyed to the grave the very day of the decease. In Astor there is something in the shape of a bier for conveying the dead. At Ghilgit two poles, across which littlebits of wood are placed sideways and then fastened, serve the same purpose. The persons who carry the body

meat. After that period the grave is again visited by the deceased's friends, who, on reach ing the grave, eat some ghi and bread, offer up prayers, and, on returning, slaughter a sheep, whose kidney is roasted and divided into small bits amongst those present. Bread is distributed

think it a meritorious act.

The women accom

pany the body for some fifty yards and then return to the house to weep. The body is then placed in the earth, which has been dug up to

admit of its interment. Sometimes the grave is a pucka one, and a kind of small vault is made over it with pieces of wood closely jammed toge ther.

A Pir or saint receives a hewn stone,

standing as a sign-post from the tomb. I have seen no inscriptions anywhere. I do not believe there are any in the whole of Dardistan proper.

The tomb of one of their famous saints at Ghilgit has none. I have heard people there say that he was killed at that place in order to provide the country with a shrine. My Ghilgiti, who, like all his countrymen, was very patriotic, de nied it, but I heard it at Ghilgit from several persons, among whom was one of the descendants

of the saint. As the saint was a Kashmiri, the veracity of his descendant may, however, justly be doubted.

To return

to the funeral.

The

body is conveyed to the cemetery, which is gener ally at some distance from the village, accom panied by friends. When they reach the spot the Mulla reads the prayers standing—as in the

• Jenazá’—any genuflexion, ‘ruku, and pro

that the deceased may be preserved from the fire

amongst those present, and a little feast is in

dulged in, in memory of the deceased. I doubt, however, whether the Ghilgitis are very exact

in their religious exercises. The mention of death was always received with shouts of laughter by them, and one of them told me that a dead

person deserved only to be kicked. He possibly only joked, and there can be little doubt that the Ghilgit people are not very communicative about their better feelings. It would be ridiculous however, to deny them the possession of natural feelings, although I certainly believe that they are not over-burdened with them.

In Astor the

influence of Kashmir has made the people attend a little more to the ceremonies of the Musalman

religion. In Chilás rigour is observed in the mainte nance of religious practices, but elsewhere there exists the greatest laxity. In fact, so rude are the people, that they have no written character of their own, and till very recently the art of writing (Persian) was confined to, perhaps, the

Rājas of these countries, or rather to their Munshis, when they had any. Some of them may be able to read the Koran.

Even

this I doubt, as of hundreds of people, I saw at Ghilgit only one who could read, and he was a Kashmiri who had travelled far and wide, and had at last settled in that country. Grave-in scriptions, or indeed inscriptions of any kind, I did not see in the country, and the report that they kill saints in order to have shrines where to worship, has been repeated to me so often, and from so many different quarters as almost to deserve credence.

(f) HOLIDAYS.

The great holiday of the Shin people happen ed, in 1867, during the month succeeding the