62 A Sportswoman in India 



Buddhism. Further back still, there is a misty out- 

 line of an invasion by an army of Darius, King of 

 Persia. 



There has never been any tide of conquest and 

 emigration out of India ; what has gone out, and 

 particularly by this pass, was wealth immeasurable 

 and inconceivable, and one great religion : a wealth 

 over which nations have squabbled from time im- 

 memorial ; a religion which once influenced millions, 

 and which is now in 



that last drear mood 

 Of envious sloth and proud decrepitude, 

 While . . . whining for dead gods that cannot save, 

 The toothless systems shiver to their grave. 



As we drove along we soon began to meet whole 

 families of Kabulees coming down the pass, with 

 their shaggy Bokhara camels and heavily laden 

 saddle-bags full of carpets, spice, and various Eastern 

 merchandise. Little Afghan children were tied in 

 foshteens to the saddle-bags, their heads jerking and 

 bobbing backwards and forwards at every stride. 



The Afghans themselves claim their descent from 

 the Israelites, and hold that they are the representa- 

 tives of part of the lost Ten Tribes, who never 

 returned from the Assyrian Captivity into which 

 they were carried by.Tiglath Pileser, 721 B.C. The 

 Kashmiris also claim the same ; the competitors, in 

 fact, are many and various, and a cataract of nine- 

 teenth-century ink has flowed in vain in the cause 



