KASHMIR. 273 



dars or proprietors, 80 houses ; Mohammedan shop- 

 keepers, 65; Hindil shopkeepers, 15; Brahmins, 8; 

 pundits, 20; goldsmiths, 10; bakers, 5; washermen, 

 5 ; cloth-weavers, 9 ; blacksmiths, 5 ; carpenters, 4 ; 

 toy-makers, 1 ; surgeons (query, phlebotomists), 2 ; 

 physicians, 3 ; leather-workers, 5 ; milk-sellers, 7 ; 

 cow - keepers, 2 ; fishermen, 10 ; fish - sellers, 7 ; 

 butchers, 8 ; musicians, 2 ; carpet - makers, 2 ; 

 blanket - makers, 3 ; Syud (descendant of the pro- 

 phet), 1 ; Miillas (Mohammedan clergymen), 12 ; 

 Pir Zadas (saints!), 40; Fakirs, 20. It will thus 

 be seen that about a fourth of the 400 houses are 

 occupied by the so-called ministers of religion ; and 

 that the landed gentry are almost all Mohammedan, 

 though the people of that religion complain of their 

 diminished position under the present Hindu (Sikh) 

 Raj in Kashmir. For these 400 houses there are 10 

 mosques, besides 8 smaller shrines, and several Hindu 

 temples, yet the Kashmiris are far from being a re- 

 ligious people as compared with the races of India 

 generally. Let us consider how an English village 

 of 4000 or 6000 people would nourish if it were bur- 

 dened in this way by a fourth of its population being 

 ministers of religion, and in great part ruffians with- 

 out family ties. 



It is a very rough and uncertain calculation which 

 sets down the population of Kashmir at half a million. 

 The whole population of the dominions of the Maha- 

 rajah is said to be a million and a half, but that includes 



