very original source from which their Religion had spread abroad." The feeling with which they looked to Kashmir must have been nearly the same as that with which the Buddhists of Burma look to Ceylon. But this feeling towards Kashmir does not now, I am informed, exist in Tibet. The reverence for the holy places has reverted to Bahar and the neighbouring "cradle-lands" of Buddhism.

It is notable that the historian Firishta, in a passage quoted by Tod, uses Marco's expression in reference to Kashmir, almost precisely, saying that the Hindoos derived their idolatry from Kashmir, "the foundry of magical superstition." (Rajasthan, I. 219.)

NOTE 4.—The people of Kashmir retain their beauty, but they are morally one of the most degraded races in Asia. Long oppression, now under the Lords of Jamu as great as ever, has no doubt aggravated this. Yet it would seem that twelve hundred years ago the evil elements were there as well as the beauty. The Chinese traveller says: "Their manners are light and volatile, their characters effeminate and pusillaniThey are very handsome, but their natural bent is to fraud and trickery." (Pèl. Boud. II. 167-8.) Vigne's account is nearly the same (II. 142-3). "They are as mischievous as monkeys, and far more malicious," says Mr. Shaw (p. 292).

mous. .

NOTE 5.-In the time of Hwen Thsang, who spent two years studying in Kashmir in the first half of the 7th century, though there were many Brahmans in the country, Buddhism was in a flourishing state; there were 100 convents with about 5000 monks. In the end of the 11th century a King (Harshadeva, 1090-1102) is mentioned exceptionally as a protector of Buddhism. The supposition has been intimated above that Marco's picture refers to a traditional state of things, but I must notice that a like picture is presented in the Chinese account of Hulaku's war. One of the thirty kingdoms subdued by the Mongols was "The kingdom of Fo (Buddha) called Kishimi. It lies to the N.W. of India. There are to be seen the men who are counted the successors of Shakia ; their ancient and venerable air recalls the countenance of Bodi-dharma as one sees it in pictures. They abstain from wine, and content themselves with a gill of rice for their daily food, and are occupied only in reciting the prayers and litanies of Fo." (Rém. N. Mel. Asiat. I. 179.) Abul Fazl says that on his third visit with Akbar to Kashmir he discovered some old men of the religion of Buddha, but none of them were literati. The Rishis, of whom he speaks with high commendation as abstaining from meat and from female society, as charitable and unfettered by traditions, were perhaps a modified remnant of the Buddhist Eremites. Colonel Newall, in a paper on the Rishis of Kashmir, traces them to a number of Shiáh Sayads, who fled to Kashmir in the time of Timur. But evidently the genus was of much earlier date, long preceding the introduction of Islam. (Vie et V. de H. T. p. 390; Lassen, III. 709; Ayeen Akb. II. 147, III. 151; J. A. S. B. XXXIX. Pt. I. 265.)

We see from the Dabistan that in the 17th century Kashmir continued to be a great resort of Magian mystics and sages of various sects, professing great abstinence and credited with preternatural powers. And indeed Vámbéry tells us that even in our own day the Kashmiri Dervishes are pre-eminent among their Mahomedan brethren for cunning, secret arts, skill in exorcisms, &c. (Dab. I. 113 seqq., II. 147-8: Vamb. Sk. of Cent. Asia, 9.)

NOTE 6.-The first precept of the Buddhist Decalogue, or Ten Obligations of the Religious Body, is not to take life. But animal food is not forbidden, though restricted. Indeed it is one of the circumstances in the Legendary History of Sakya Muni, which looks as if it must be true, that he is related to have aggravated his fatal illness by eating a dish of pork set before him by a hospitable goldsmith. Giorgi says the butchers in Tibet are looked on as infamous; and people selling sheep or the like will make a show of exacting an assurance that these are not to be slaughtered. In Burma when a British party wanted beef the owner of the bullocks would decline to make one over, but would point one out that might be shot by the foreigners.

In Tibetan history it is told of the persecutor Langdarma that he compelled members of the highest orders of the clergy to become hunters and butchers. A Chinese collection of epigrams, dating from the ninth century, gives a facetious list of Incongruous Conditions, among which we find a poor Parsi, a sick Physician, a fat Bride, a Teacher who does not know his letters, and a Butcher who reads the Scriptures (of Buddhism)! (Alph. Tib. 445 ; Koeppen, I. 74 ; N. and Q., C. and J. III. 34.)

NOTE 7.-Coral is still a very popular adornment in the Himalayan countries. The merchant Tavernier says the people to the north of the Great Mogul's territories and in the mountains of Assam and Tibet were the greatest purchasers of coral. (Tr. in India, Bk. II. ch. xxiii.)

CHAPTER XXXII.

OF THE GREAT RIVER OF BADASHAN.

IN leaving Badashan you ride twelve days between east and north-east, ascending a river that runs through land belonging to a brother of the Prince of Badashan, and containing a good many towns and villages and scattered habitations. The people are Mahommetans, and valiant in war. At the end of those twelve days you come to

a province of no great size, extending indeed no more than three days' journey in any direction, and this is called VOKHAN. The people worship Mahommet, and they have a peculiar language. They are gallant soldiers, and they have a chief whom they call NONE, which is as much as to say Count, and they are liegemen to the Prince of Badashan.'

There are numbers of wild beasts of all sorts in this region. And when you leave this little country, and ride three days north-east, always among mountains, you get to such a height that 'tis said to be the highest place in the world! And when you have got to this height you find [a great lake between two mountains, and out of it] a fine river running through a plain clothed with the finest pasture in the world; insomuch that a lean beast there will fatten to your heart's content in ten days. There are great numbers of all kinds of wild beasts; among others, wild sheep of great size, whose horns are good six palms in length. From these horns the shepherds make great bowls to eat from, and they use the horns also to enclose folds for their cattle at night. [Messer Marco was told also that the wolves were numerous, and killed many of those wild sheep. Hence quantities of their horns and bones were found, and these were made into great heaps by the way-side, in order to guide travellers when snow was on the ground.]

The Plain is called PAMIER, and you ride across it for twelve days together, finding nothing but a desert without habitations or any green thing, so that travellers are obliged to carry with them whatever they have need of. The region is so lofty and cold that you do not even see any birds flying. And I must notice also that because of this great cold, fire does not burn so brightly, nor give out so much heat as usual, nor does it cook food so effectually.2

Now, if we go on with our journey towards the eastnorth-east, we travel a good forty days, continually passing

over mountains and hills, or through valleys, and crossing many rivers and tracts of wilderness. And in all this way you find neither habitation of man, nor any green thing, but must carry with you whatever you require. The country is called BOLOR. The people dwell high up in the mountains, and are savage Idolaters, living only by the chase, and clothing themselves in the skins of beasts. They are in truth an evil race.3

NOTE 1.—The river along which Marco travels from Badakhshan is no doubt the upper stream of the Oxus, known locally as the Panja, along which Wood also travelled, followed of late by the Mirza and Faiz Bakhsh. It is true that the river is reached from Badakhshan Proper by ascending another river (the Vardoj) and crossing the Pass of Ishkashm, but in the brief style of our narrative we must expect such condensation.

WAKHAN was restored to geography by Macartney, in the able map which he compiled for Elphinstone's Caubul, and was made known more accurately by Wood's journey through it. It embraces the Panja valley above Ishkáshm and some tributary Darrahs or Vales. The lowest part is about 8000 feet above the sea, and the highest Kishlak, or village, about 11,500. A few willows and poplars are the only trees that can stand against the bitter blasts that blow down the valley. Wood estimated the total population of the province at only 1000 souls, though it might be capable of supporting 5000. He saw it, however, in the depth of winter. As to the peculiar language see note 1, chap. xxix. It is said to be a very old dialect of Persian. A scanty vocabulary was collected by Hayward (J. R. G. S. XXI. p. 29). The people, according to Shaw, have Aryan features, resembling those of the Kashmiris, but harsher.

We appear to see in the indications of this paragraph precisely the same system of government that now prevails in the Oxus valleys. The central districts of Faizabad and Jerm are under the immediate administration of the Mír of Badakhshan, whilst fifteen other districts, such as Kishm, Rusták, Zebák, Ishkáshm, Wakhán, are dependencies "held by the relations of the Mir, or by hereditary rulers, on a feudal

* "Yet this barren and inaccessible upland, with its scanty handful of wild people, finds a place in Eastern history and geography from an early period, and has now become the subject of serious correspondence between two great European Governments, and its name, for a few weeks at least, a household word in London. Indeed, this is a striking accident of the course of modern history. We see the Slav and the Englishman--representatives of two great branches of the Aryan race, but divided by such vast intervals of space and time from the original common starting-point of their migration--thus brought back to the lap of Pamir, to which so many quivering lines point as the centre of their earliest seats, there by common consent to lay down limits to mutual encroachment."- Quarterly Review, April 1873, p. 548.

tenure, conditional on fidelity and military service in time of need, the holders possessing supreme authority in their respective territories, and paying little or no tribute to the paramount power." (Pandit Manphul.) The first part of the valley of which Marco speaks as belonging to a brother of the Prince, may correspond to Ishkashm, or perhaps to Vardoj; the second, Wakhan, seems to have had a hereditary ruler; but both were vassals of the Prince of Badakhshan, and therefore are styled Counts, not kings or Seigneurs.

The native title which Marco gives as the equivalent of Count is remarkable. Non or None, as it is variously written in the texts, would in French form represent Nono in Italian. Pauthier refers this title to the "Rao-nana (or nano) Rao," which figures as the style of Kanerkes in the Indo-Scythic coinage. But Wilson (Ariana Antiqua, p. 358) interprets Raonano as most probably a genitive plural of Rao, whilst the whole inscription answers precisely to the Greek one ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΝ ΚΑΝΗΡΚΟΥ which is found on other coins of the same prince. General Cunningham, a very competent authority, adheres to this view and writes: "I do not think None or Non can have any connection with the Nana of the coins."

It is remarkable, however, that NONO (said to signify "younger," or lesser) is in Tibet the title given to a younger brother, deputy, or subordinate prince. In Cunningham's Ladak (259) we read: “Nono is the usual term of respect which is used in addressing any young man of the higher ranks, and when prefixed to Kahlon it means the younger or deputy minister." And again (p. 352): "Nono is the title given to a younger brother. Nono Sungnam was the younger brother of Chang Raphtan the Kahlon of Bazgo." I have recently encountered the word used independently, and precisely in Marco's application of it. An old friend in speaking of a journey that he had made in our Tibetan provinces, said incidentally that he had accompanied the commissioner to the installation of a new NONO (I think in Spiti). The term here corresponds so precisely with the explanation which Marco gives of None as a Count subject to a superior sovereign, that it is difficult to regard the coincidence as accidental. The Yuechi or Indo-Scyths who long ruled the Oxus countries are said to have been of Tibetan origin, and Al-Biruni repeats a report that this was so (Elliot, II. 9).* Can this title have been a trace of their rule? Or is it Indian?

NOTE 2. This chapter is one of the most interesting in the book, and contains one of its most splendid anticipations of modern exploration, whilst conversely Lieutenant John Wood's narrative presents the most brilliant confirmation in detail of Marco's narrative.

We have very old testimony to the recognition of the great altitude of the Plateau of PAMIR (the name which Marco gives it and which it

* Ibn Haukal reckons Wakhán as an Indian country. It is a curious coincidence (it can scarcely be more) that Nono in the Garo tongue of Eastern Bengal signifies a younger brother." J. A. S. B. XXII. 153, XVIII. 208.