244 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



recent traveller, Dr A. L. Adams the naturalist, says 

 of them : " Everywhere in Cashmere you see the in- 

 habitants indolent to a degree, filthy in their habits, 

 mean, cowardly, shabby, irresolute, and indifferent to 

 all ideas of reform or progress." Their name has 

 become a by-word throughout a great part of Asia. 

 Even where there are so many deceitful nations they 

 have obtained a bad pre-eminence. According to a 

 well-known Persian saying, "you Avill never experi- 

 ence anything but sorrow and anxiety from the Kash- 

 miri." When these people got this bad name is lost 

 in antiquity, and so is the period when they first 

 passed into the unfortunate circumstances which have 

 demoralised them. They are, however, not unattrac- 

 tive, being an intellectual people, and characterised 

 by great ingenuity and sprightliness. I cannot deny 

 the truth of the accusations brought against them, 

 yet I could not but pity them and sympathise with 

 them. I think also that they have the elements of 

 Avhat, in more fortunate circumstances, might be a 

 very fine character ; but dwelling in a fertile and 

 beautiful valley, surrounded by hardy and warlike 

 tribes, they have for ages been subject to that oppres- 

 sion which destroys national hope and virtue. Their 

 population has hardly been large enough to afford 

 effectual resistance to the opposing forces, though, 

 unless there had been a large element of weakness in 

 their character, they might surely have held their 

 passes ; and, at the same time, they were too many 



