404 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



more remote, and may extend to Cashmere. These 

 tribes are remains of a considerable people, among 

 whom were the original Cashmerians, and a great part 

 of the inhabitants of Badakshaun and Cabul, as far 

 south as the Deggaun tribes, and on the southern face 

 of the higher ridges of Himalaya, extending eastward 

 to an unknown distance; for at the sources of the 

 Jumna and Bunderpoosh, clans of Bisharees are blue 

 eyed, and often have red hair ; but nearly the whole 

 of these being subjected by Moslem conquerors, have 

 lost their pristine individuality of national character, 

 though among the Aifghan tribes of Cabul, in parti- 

 cular, it is still not unfrequent to observe heads and 

 figures, that might serve for models to sculptors who 

 would pourtray a Jupiter or a Mars, according to the 

 refined idealism of the ancient Greeks. 



The Kaufirs have the face oval, the brows well 

 arched, and the nose and mouth even more refined 

 than the Greek. They are, moreover, still fairer, ge- 

 nerally with lighter hair and grey eyes. They defend 

 their fastnesses, whither they have retired since the 

 Mahommedan conquest in 742 of the Hegira, with 

 obstinate valour, attaching certain privileges to him 

 who slays an Affghan. They still retain a rude idol 

 stone, denominated Irmtan, representing Imra, Dagun 

 or God, the Supreme Being, having besides inferior 

 divinities, evidently borrowed from other nations, 

 chiefly from India. They shave the hair, excepting a 

 tuft in the middle, which, when it is plaited, is exactly 

 similar to the older statues of Horus, when he is hold- 



