288 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



but to Kashmir it was reserved to corrupt the reform- 

 ing angels by means of a simple courtesan. Mer- 

 maids, too, there appear to have been in the lake 

 the beautiful daughters of the serpent-gods, before 

 whom even Brahmins trembled and were powerless. 

 "With the Mohammedans there comes a more troubled 

 era. After an ineffectual attempt in the end of the 

 tenth century, Mohammed of Ghuzni conquered 

 Kashmir in the beginning of the eleventh century ; 

 chiefs of Dardistan and kings of Tibet make incur- 

 sions into it, and forcibly marry the daughters of its 

 tottering Hindu monarchs ; even distant Turkistan 

 sends vultures to the prey ; and the only heroism is 

 displayed by Queen Kajputani, the last of its Hinchi 

 sovereigns, who, rather than marry an usurping prime 

 minister, upbraided him for his ingratitude and treach- 

 ery, and stabbed herself before him. The sixth of 

 the Moslem monarchs who succeeded and who reigned 

 in 1396 A.D., was the ignorant zealot Sikander, nick- 

 named Bhutshikan or the Image-breaker, Avho devoted 

 his energies to destroying the ancient architecture 

 and sculpture of Kashmir, and succeeded only too 

 well in his endeavours. In the next century reigned 

 the Badshah or Great King, Zein-ul-abdin, who gave 

 Kashmir its most celebrated manufacture, by intro- 

 ducing wool from Tibet and weavers from Turkistan, 

 as also papier-mache work and the manufacture of 

 paper. This extraordinary man reigned fifty-three 

 years ; he was a patron of literature, a poet, and a 



