I am for the honour of the Afghaun name;
And they have taken part with the Moguls:
They prowl about like hungry dogs
After the bread and soup of the Moguls :
They are always in pursuit of me,

My hand could reach them even now,

But I will not destroy my own soul.'-p. 194.

Mr. Elphinstone compares this intrepid chief to Wallace. But Kooshhaul fought less for the liberty than for the superiority of his tribe; and bore, we think, a more striking resemblance to Sevagee than to the enemy of Edward. One of his odes, which Mr. Elphinstone has given entire, and which proves his unwearied ardour in kindling new animosities against Aurengzebe, opens in this characteristic and beautiful manner :

"Whence has this spring appeared again,

Which has made the country all one rose garden?
The anemone is there, the iris and the daffodil,

The jasmine, the narcissus, and the pomegranate flower.
The flowers of the spring are of all colours,

But the cheek of the red tulip glows most among them all.
The maidens have handfuls of roses in their bosom,

The youths have bunches of flowers in their turbans,
The musician applies his bow to the cheghauneh,
And searches out the melodies of every string.
Come, O cup-bearer, bring full, full cups;

Let me be satiated with wine and revelry.'-p. 195.

This description, Mr. Elphinstone says reminds him of the old English romance. He might surely have found a nobler prototype. To us it strongly recals the wild and fervid strains of Aneurim and Taliessin: and we could scarcely persuade ourselves through the whole of this animated ode, that we were not listening to the • Hirlas-horn,' and the poems of the Gododin.

are re

Mr. Elphinstone winds up his account of the Afghauns with a brief summary of their character. 'Their vices,' he says, venge, envy, avarice, rapacity and obstinacy; on the other hand, they are fond of liberty, faithful to their friends, kind to their dependants, hospitable, brave, hardy, frugal, laborious, and prudent; and they are less disposed than the nations in their neighbourhood to falsehood, intrigue, and deceit.' This character is rather more favourable than that which is given of the same people by that extraordinary traveller Forster; but the difference may be well accounted for by the different circumstances under which they saw them the one travelling not much unlike a mendicant-the other, in all the splendour of an oriental ambassador.

His account of the provinces of Sind, Heraut, Belochistaun, &c, we must pass over in silence, that we may spare room for a

glance

glance beyond the Himmaleh, and the Hindoo Coosh. Of the tributary province of Cashmeer, which is an indented basin in the bosom of these lofty ranges, we can desire nothing more than is to be found in the lively and interesting descriptions of Bernier and Forster. The city of Cashmeer, Mr. Elphinstone says, is the largest in the Dooraunee dominions, containing from 150 to 200,000 inhabitants: the inquiries made by Mr. Strachey enable us to add a short account of the shawl manufactory here, which is said to employ sixteen thousand looms.

A shop, shed, or tent, has generally three working-people; and a remarkably fine shawl will occupy them a whole year or more, while other shops make six or eight in the same period. Of the best kind three people will work only about a quarter of an inch in a day: sometimes shawls are made in separate pieces and afterwards joined together; the plain shawls are woven with a shuttle; the variegated ones are worked with wooden needles, each different coloured thread having a distinct needle. The Oostaud, or head workman, directs them as to the thread and colours they are to use in order to make the figure; and though the rough side of the shawl is uppermost on the frame, and the pattern perhaps quite new, he never mistakes the regularity of the most figured patterns. The wool of the shawl-goat is imported from Tibet and other parts of Tartary, and is spun by women. best is from Rodauk, and it bears in Cashmeer a price of half-acrown to three shillings a pound. Mr. Strachey thinks that the probable number of shawls manufactured at Cashmeer in one year may be about eighty thousand.

The

The Appendix to Mr. Elphinstone's book contains a curious and most interesting account of Caufiristaun, collected from the report of a Mussulman whom he employed to penetrate into that country, and supported by other respectable authorities. Major Rennell, in his admirable Memoir, has stated, on the authority of the late Colonel Kirkpatrick, that there is a certain tribe inhabiting modern Bijore, (Bajour,) who pretend to be the descendants of certain persons belonging to Alexander's army; and who continue to preserve that ascendancy over their neighbours, which their ancestors may be supposed to have possessed when they first settled there. The authority from which this opinion was derived, Mr. Elphinstone says, they were soon obliged to give up; but they learned that the Caufirs, situated in the mountains north of Bajour, had many points of character common with the Greeks they were celebrated for their beauty and European complexion, worshipped idols, drank wine in silver cups or vases, used chairs and tables, and spoke a language unknown to their neighbours.' The country inhabited by these people occupies a

great part of the range of the Hindoo Coosh, and a portion of Beloot Taugh. It is bounded by Kaushkaur, Badakshan, and Bulkh, and its easterly extent, behind the Himmaleh mountains, is beyond the meridian of Cashmeer.

This alpine country is composed of snowy mountains, deep pine forests, intersected with few roads, and those impassable but on foot; it is well watered by mountain-streams and rapid torrents, that are crossed by wooden bridges, or ropes made of withy and other pliant trees. Its towns and villages are always built on the slope of a hill, the roof of one house forming the street leading to the one above it. The deep glens or valleys are fertile in wheat, various kinds of millet, grapes wild and cultivated; and feed abundance of cattle. Each valley has its tribe; these tribes are separated by the Mussulmans into Tor Caufirs, (black infidels,) and Speen Caufirs, (white infidels ;) the former wearing a vest of black goat skins, the other of white cotton. Their language has a close connection with the Sanscrit; a circumstance which Mr. Elphinstone thinks fatal to their supposed descent from the Greeks. Our conclusion would have been just the contrary. Any of the Greeks that followed Alexander, and remained behind, must have been left in the Panjaub, and a few stragglers could not do otherwise than learn the language of the country in which they were doomed to reside; this language their descendants may be supposed to have carried with them to their retreat in the mountains. The close resemblance in the mechanism of the Greek and Sanscrit languages would render the latter sufficiently easy to the people of the former nation; and we have very little doubt that, if Mr. Elphinstone had been fortunate enough to obtain a vocabulary of the Caufir language, we should be able to make a considerable addition to the Sanscrit roots already to be found both in the Greek and Latin languages, especially in the latter. It is no weak argument in favour of a current opinion in these mountains, that the descendants of the Greeks did find their way thither, that the king of Derwauz, a tribe of Kisghis Tartars, still farther north than the Caufirs, should claim a descent from Alexander the Great, and that all the neighbouring tribes should admit his pretensions.

The Caufirs worship one God, called by some Imra, by others Dagun; but great men are sometimes deified and considered as intercessors with him. They attach considerable importance to the virtues of liberality and hospitality. They eat all kinds of animal food, except fish, which they abhor. The women do all the drudgery of the family, and even till the land. They take as many wives as they please, and domestic slavery is very common. All their slaves are Caufirs; the Mussulman prisoners taken by them being invariably put to death; for they hold them in detestation, and

undertake

undertake long and difficult expeditions against them. In their solemn festivals, each man wears a turban in which is stuck a feather for every Mussulman he has killed; the number of bells worn round the waist is also regulated by the same rule; and no Caufir, who has not killed his man, is allowed to flourish his battle-axe above his head in the dance. This exasperation against their Mahomedan neighbours must, no doubt, have been occasioned by cruelties and persecutions on their part; for the Caufirs are represented as a harmless, affectionate, kind hearted people; easily appeased when in anger; playful, fond of laughter, and altogether of a sociable and joyous disposition.

Their marriage and funeral ceremonies greatly resemble those of the Chinese; and, like this people, they seek for posthumous reputation by the erection of a gate near the way-side, something like those which the catholic missionaries have dignified with the name of triumphal arches. Like the Chinese, also, they shave the head, excepting a long tuft which is left on the crown, and pluck the hair from the upper lip, cheeks, and neck.

The dress of the common people consists of four goat skins, two of which form a vest, and two a kind of petticoat; the long hair of the skins being outward. Those in good circumstances have a shirt beneath the vest; the women wear the shirt only. The upper ranks wear cotton cloth or black hair cloth, or the white blankets of Kaushkaur, like Highland plaids, fastened with a belt, and reaching to the knee. They also wear cotton trowsers, worked with flowers in red and black worsted. The women's dress is nearly the same; but their hair is plaited and fastened on the top of the head, over which they wear a small cap, and round it a little turban, ornamented with silver and cowries. Both sexes wear earrings, neck-rings, and bracelets; those that can afford it, have them of silver; the common people, of brass or pewter. Their houses are of wood; they have stools and tables shaped like drums; bedsteads of wood and thongs of leather. The Caufirs cannot, like other Asiatics, sit on their haunches, but stretch out their legs like Europeans.

Their food consists chiefly of cheese, butter, and milk, with bread made something like a sweet pudding; they eat flesh of all kinds, generally half dressed, and their common fruits are walnuts, grapes, apples, almonds, and wild apricots; they wash their hands and say grace before meals. They drink their wine, of which they have several sorts, out of large silver cups, during their meals, to a certain degree of elevation, but not so far as to become quarrelsome. They are so hospitable, that on hearing of the approach of a stranger, they run out to meet and invite him in. He is expected to visit every person of note in the village, and with every

one he must eat and drink. Their favourite amusement is dancing, in which all ages and sexes join. Their dances are rapid, full of gesticulation, raising the shoulders, shaking the head, and flourishing the battle-axe: they beat the ground with great force; their instruments are the pipe and tabor, which the dancers frequently accompany with the voice; their music is quick, varied, and wild.

We are inclined to think that much of the earliest periods of the human history still remains to be discovered in these upper regions of Asia. Except Manning, who contrived to get into Tibet, the only European, we believe, that has yet crossed the Himmaleh, or place of snow, sometimes called Hemmachal, or the snowy mountains, is Mr. Moorcroft, an account of whose extraordinary journey is anxiously looked for. Being sent to purchase horses at a fair held at Cossipoor, he discovered that the great mart for this noble animal was at Bokhara; and conceiving that it might be of infinite service to the army in India if a direct communication could be opened with the original breeders, he engaged a Brahmin to accompany him, and, at his own risk and responsibility, set out on the frightful journey, having, however, first taken the precaution of putting on a native dress. He struck into the forests beyond Cossipoor, traversed the province of Kemaon, crossed the Gurwhal ko, and after a march of twenty-eight days, among the passes of this vast chain of mountains covered with eternal snow, and whose height has been found to extend from twenty-one to twenty-four thousand feet above the level of the plain out of which they spring, he reached a place of which geography is silent, called Neetee, situated in a part of Tartary ceded by the Emperor of China, in jaghire, to the grand Lama. Here he was detained twenty-three days, on pretence that the Lama had recently left this lower world, and was not yet regenerated. At length he was allowed to proceed, and in five days more cleared the great range of Hemmachal, and reached the table-land of Tartary, near the borders of which was situated the frontier town named D'leapa.

Here he met with whole droves of horses, which he might have purchased at 60 rupees, (about 7. sterling) a head. He wished to have proceeded in a northerly direction, but was prevented, to the sacred lake of Mansaroer, out of which it was long supposed the Ganges took its rise, but which river has been recently ascertained to have its sources in the glaciers, and from the melted snow of the southern side of the Himmaleh. The two streams which the lamas of Kang-Shee, who were sent by that emperor to ascertain the source of the Ganges, observed to flow to the westward, the one rising out of the Mansaroer lake, and the other from under Mount Kentaisse, the highest point of the Moos Taugh, and which, after their junction below Ladac, they con

cluded