68 Lieutenant J. A. Douglas — Note on Cliilds traditions. [Mar. 



mir hj Maharajah Gulab Singh entered Chilas by the KamukcTori Pass, 

 at the head of the Niat Valley, while a small force, probably auxiliaries, 

 crossed over from Astor by the Mazeno and Tosho Passes. Chilas was 

 taken after a siege of some months, and many of the people were 

 killed. 



The Chilasis say that, at the time of the Kashmir invasion, they 

 could muster 1,200 fighting men from the fort of Chilas alone ; now 

 it is doubtful whether they could raise 120 among the remains of the 

 Bhote, or people of Chilas proper. They can give no satisfactory ex- 

 planation of what has caused this rapid diminution of their numbers, 

 attributing it entirely to sickness. There are said to have been two bad 

 epidemics of cholera, within the last 30 years, besides periodical out- 

 breaks of small-pox. A good many families have also emigrated of 

 late years to more fertile districts. Numerous ruins of forts ; land, 

 which must have cost years of labour to terrace, now deserted and 

 uncultivated ; broken watercourses ; their own traditions, and the 

 i^eputation of daring raiders, — which they have obtained among their 

 neighbours, — all testify to the fact that the country must formerly have 

 been much more thickly populated than at present. It is only of recent 

 years, too, that the neighbouring valleys of Tliak, Bunar, &c., have 

 ceased to pay annual tribute to Chilas. 



The people of the Thak Valley call themselves Khauai. They 

 trace their descent to Khanu, who is said to have come from Chilas. 

 Khanu had a son called Timru, who migrated to the adjacent valley of 

 Niat, where the ruins of his fort, called Timrukot, may be seen close to 

 the village of Theh. In the same way, the people of Bunar are called 

 Bagote. They say that their ancestor Bagotu came from Khanbari 24 

 generations ago. The people of Hodar are Hodure, and of Tliur, 

 Haniike. In the Khinargah Valley, which belongs to Chilas, are two 

 ruins of forts, called Khinukot and Sheringah. These are said to have 

 been sti'ongholds of two kings, called Khinu Shah and Sheo Shah, of 

 whom nothing else appears to be known. (In the Shina language, 

 Khina means black, and Sheo white). 



The so-called " Horse of Taiban " in Gor, situated on the steep, 

 scarped, rocky side of Chahmuri Peak, which overlooks the Gor Valley. 

 Though the people say it is cut in the rock, as seen from below it 

 appeared only to be a rough outline, the dark lines being formed by 

 water which had found its way through crevices in the rock, and it is 

 only by the exercise of strong imogination that any resemblance to a 

 horse and man can be made out. Its position is almost, if not quite, 

 inaccessible, but the story is that Taiban rode up there, and that he 

 and his horse were turned into stone. Lower down in the Gor Valley 



